Hi I'm Your Brother
by WRTRD
Summary: A sequel to "Hi, I'm Eliot," in which Eliot Beckett-Castle explains the ways of the world to his sibling, long before the baby is born. Part 3 of the baby saga, and my final entry in the Castle Summer Hiatus 2015 Ficathon. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** Yup, I caved. I couldn't leave Eliot and I hope that you won't, either. This story begins three weeks after "Hi. I'm Eliot" ended.

 **Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

You wouldn't believe what I found out this morning, all because of a Cheerio.

We're having vacation at our house for two weeks, which is a lot of days in a row. Mom and Dad wanted to come out here now because it is the middle of September and a lot of the people in the neighborhood have left until next summer. It's nice and quiet. You can sit outside in the sunshine and you don't feel like you're going to catch fire. When Mom is lying by the pool I like to sit on her belly. Today I had some Cheerios and since a Cheerio is round like a belly button I decided to try to put one in Mom's and see if if it would stay there.

"Eliot! That tickles!"

I tried to take the Cheerio away from her belly button but I couldn't, and then she was laughing so hard that it popped out.

"Pretty soon you won't be able to sit on me like this, at least for a while, because my stomach will get so big you'll slide right off."

"Oohnoo, Mama."

Mom doesn't eat very much, so I don't know how her stomach could ever get like that.

"There's a baby in there, just like you used to be in there."

I was so surprised when she said that that I let go of my other Cheerios and they bounced onto the tiles and one of them rolled right into the pool. There's a baby in there? Is that what she and Dad have been talking about? Ever since my birthday. I kept thinking they were talking about me but it didn't make very much sense.

"Baby?"

"Yes, sweet pea, a baby. We don't know if it's a boy or a girl, but when it's big enough, next spring, the baby will be born and you'll be a brother. You can help Dad and me, and you can help your baby brother or sister learn things and you and Scrapple will have someone else to play with."

Scrapple must have heard his name because he came running out of the house and ate the Cheerio that was still on the tiles.

 _"_ _Hey, Scrapple, we're having a baby."_

 _"_ _Who's having a baby?"_

 _"_ _Mom. She says we'll have someone else to play with."_

 _"_ _I like playing with you. Why do we need someone else?"_

 _"_ _We could teach it to throw the ball."_

 _"_ _Okay. Good point."_

Mom sat up and held on to me so I wouldn't slide off her, even though her stomach is flat. That baby must be very little right now. Littler than a kumquat! "Castle? Could you bring me some ginger ale, please? And some water for Eliot?"

Dad put his head out of the door. "Be right there!"

And he was.

"Dada?"

"What's up?"

"Baby! Mama baby."

"Oh, Castle, I just told him about it. You should have seen his expression. He was stunned. Totally adorable."

Dad kissed me on my foot. "It's a great thing, bub. Gonna be so much fun. Someone else for you and Scrapple to play with."

 _"_ _Yeah, that's what Mom said."_

"What time is it? Your mother will be back for lunch."

"Eleven thirty. You up to eating something?"

"Yup, feel pretty well now. You wanted to write, didn't you? Martha and I can take care of lunch."

"You sure?"

"Go on in. I'll holler when it's ready."

So Dad went to his office inside and Mom and I splashed our feet in the pool for a little while until we heard Gram saying hello, and we got up to meet her in the kitchen. After we said hi Mom helped Gram with her grocery bags.

"I got all sorts of yummy things at the farmers' market. Corn, and all the makings for a wonderful salad."

"Sounds perfect, Martha, thank you."

Mom and Grams started washing lettuce and stuff in the sink. I was sitting on the floor but I needed to tell Gram what was happening.

"Gam! Gam!"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

I pointed to Mom. "Baby! Mama baby!"

"What?"

Now that I can walk all by myself I stood up and went to Mom who was standing next to Gram and I reached up to pat her belly. "Baby. Mama."

Gram's eyes got very big. "Katherine?" She asked it that way she does when she is trying to find something out. It kind of sounds like she's singing. "Katherine? Are you?"

Mom put her hand on my head. "Oh, boy, look who let the cat out of the bag."

 _"_ _There's a cat! Scrapple, come here! Find the cat!"_

"Are you?"

"Yup. Pregnant. We weren't going to tell anybody just yet, but I explained—if you can call it that—to Eliot this morning about the baby and he obviously understood."

Gram gave Mom and me a big hug together. "Clever boy! I didn't even know you were trying, dear. Are you feeling all right?"

"Once it gets to be ten o'clock or so, I do. Before that, oh, God. At least I know it won't last long. And no, we were't trying yet, but, uh, you know."

I was looking at Mom. Her face was red all of a sudden.

Gram laughed. "The best kind of accident, darling. When are you due?"

 _"_ _What accident? Mom was in an accident? Why didn't I know that? I'm glad you're all right, Mom."_

"April, right around Easter."

 _"_ _Easter? Maybe we can call the baby Bunny!"_

Dad came in the kitchen then. "Am I missing all the fun? There's a lot of laughing going on in here."

"Well, Richard, your son here just informed me that I'm going to be a grandmother again."

Dad picked me up and gave me a smooch. "Really? Atta boy! Don't tell anyone else yet, okay? It's still a secret for us."

 _"_ _Okay. But I told Scrapple, too."_

After lunch Dad went back to his office and Gram went out to see a friend. Mom decided that she and I would take a nap under a tree, so we cuddled up there together on a blanket. She fell sound asleep but I was still awake. I put my hand on her stomach, but softly so she wouldn't know.

 _"_ _Hey, baby, can you hear me? Hi, I'm your brother. I'm Eliot. I used to be in there like you."_

 _"_ _Hi, Eliot. Finally I have someone to talk to!"_

 _"_ _Okay, good. I have to sleep now, and you should. too. I'll talk to you later. I bet you have a lot of questions."_

I'm going to take my nap now, but here's a new question from me. I know how I got out of Mom but how did I get in there? Did the new baby get in the same way? When I know more words I'm going to ask.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

There was a huge storm a couple of days ago and it made the waves so rough that we couldn't go into the ocean afterwards. It was the last day of our vacation, and even though we didn't get to be on the beach we had a great time in the pool. Mom says I am a water baby and I keep saying I'm not a baby anymore but she calls me that anyway. I told the baby about the pool.

 _"_ _How do you like swimming in there?"_

 _"_ _It's fun."_

 _"_ _Wait 'til you get out and see the swimming pool. You get cool things called water wings and there's a ton more room."_

 _"_ _I'm getting out?"_

 _"_ _Yup."_

 _"_ _Good. Although so far it's really nice in here."_

You know how Mom and Dad sometimes have these conversations that I don't understand? Yesterday in the pool was one of them. Maybe you can figure out what they were talking about, but don't ask me!

"Stop ogling me, Castle."

"I am not ogling, Beckett. I am appreciating."

"Is this a semantic debate? Because it sure looks like ogling to me. Leering."

"Well, let me just say in my defense that it's your fault. Your tiny excuse of a bikini's fault. That there's more of you in the top half to appreciate than usual. I mean, your bottom half is still so flat that no one would guess you're pregnant, but the top—"

"More of me to appreciate than usual? Really? You might want to stop now."

"Stopping."

I guess I have to pay more attention or something.

When we drove to the city later I was thinking that it will be good when the baby is born because then there will be someone in the back seat to keep me company. Scrapple always falls asleep in the car so I can't talk to him and I get bored. I was happy to see the loft again and everything looked the same, but I was sad too because Mom had to go to work in the morning and we won't get to spend as much time together.

Sometimes it seems as though Mom and Dad can see inside my head because they know what I'm thinking. It's spooky. Sometimes Dad says, "You're reading my mind, Beckett," and sometimes she says, "Castle, you're a mind reader." That's what seeing inside your head is. It must run in the family. That's a funny expression because nothing's running, but it means more than one person in the family has the same thing, like Dad and Gram and Alexis and I have blue eyes. Mom must have seen inside my brain last night because I was wanting to have a nice long bath with her before she does to the precinct again.

After supper she lifted me out of the high chair. "Eliot, you and I are going to have a nice long bath together because I have to go back to the precinct tomorrow and we won't get to spend as much time together as we did out at our house."

See what I mean? Amazeballs. We got all soapy and she washed my hair and then we rinsed off and sort of floated around in the tub. Not really floated but we were just quiet and peaceful and I was lying on her chest.

 _"_ _Hey, Baby, can you tell we're in the tub?"_

 _"_ _Yes, it's nice and warm."_

 _"_ _Mom and I are relaxing. That's like being awake and asleep at the same time. Tomorrow she's going back to work so I won't get to talk to you during the day. I'll be at home with Dad. You have to go everywhere with her while you're in there. Do you remember the precinct?"_

 _"_ _Not really. I was very little and I was trying to figure things out."_

 _"_ _Mom is a police person. She used to be a detective but now she is the boss of the other detectives and is called Captain. When I was inside like you she was still a detective and you should have heard her when she was talking to the bad guys in the place called interrogation. She was more ferocious than a lion, which I saw at the Bronx Zoo the day after my birthday so I know what I'm talking about. I guess you'll get to hear her do that because she still talks to the bad guys. She says she doesn't go to crime scenes very much any more. You should be glad because some of them were very scary. Anyway, when you come back from the precinct tomorrow you can tell me what she did and also ask me questions, okay?"_

 _"_ _Okay."_

 _"_ _Don't forget."_

 _"_ _I won't."_

So today I stayed home with Dad and we had fun, but I thought about the baby a lot and what questions it would have. I don't like to call Baby it but we don't know if it's a boy or a girl. I was excited when Mom got home, not just to see her but to find about the precinct which I miss some of the time.

 _"_ _Hi, Baby. Did you have fun?"_

 _"_ _Yes. It seems like no one knows that I'm in here, though."_

 _"_ _They will, later on. Was there anything exciting?"_

 _"_ _Not too much because we didn't go to the interrogation place. But I have a question. You know Ryan and Esposito, right?"_

 _"_ _Sure."_

 _"_ _Well, they were talking about a suspect. I thought his name was Ron Morgan because that's what Mom said but then Ryan and Esposito called him chud and scum and sleazestack and piss-head. So I was mixed up."_

 _"_ _Ha! I love those! Those are just other ways to say a suspect. Mom doesn't like it when Dad and Ryan and Espoito use those names but once in a while when she's really mad she does. She uses worse words than that, even! When you get out, don't say 'piss-head' though, because Mom told Dad not to say that in front of me. You could say it to Dad when she's not there because he would really laugh."_

I'm not sure if the baby heard all of that because when I asked something else it didn't answer. I think Baby had gone to sleep. I remember when I was Baby's age I slept a lot.

Here is my project, which is a word I learned from Dad. It's like a plan you're doing. One of Dad's projects right now is the book he's writing, _Sizzling Heat_. One of Mom's is clearing out the closets. So, I have my first project! It's to think of a name to call the baby until it gets born, so it can have something better than I had before, though Plus One was pretty good. Mom said the baby is being born around Easter, in April. I could call Baby that, but April is also a girl's name and what if Baby is a boy? Remember I thought about calling it Bunny, for Easter Bunny? If I could find out what the first letter is of Easter and Bunny, I could use that. We know two people called MJ, one for Matthew John and one for Mary Jasmine, so MJ can be a boy or a girl. That way I could use the two letters for Easter Bunny and it would be a good name if the baby is my brother or sister.

And you know how I know that's a good idea? Because I had just thought of it this afternoon and Dad said, "Eliot, it's story time. How about _The Runaway Bunny_?" He saw inside my head, just like Mom did yesterday with the bath. Amazeballs.

 **A/N** Thank you so much for the tidal wave of support for Eliot and his soon-to-be-sidekick.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Dad was driving and Mom turned around to look at me in my car seat. "Eliot, you be a good boy. Scrapple, you too. I know you love Perlmutter so I'm sure that you will be. Dad and I have to go to a wedding today. I'm sorry it's just for grown-ups, but I bet that you'll have more fun than we do."

Dad made a face. I could see him in the mirror. "You can say that again."

 _"_ _I bet Scrapple and I have more fun than you do!"_ That was my joke on Dad because I said what Mom said again.

Mom turned her head back around so fast that her hair almost hit the ceiling. "Castle!"

"What? Tell me that you're looking forward to a wedding in an enormous yurt in a parking lot, and a vegan reception? With a band that plays lutes and mandolins and autoharps?"

"It's not in a parking lot."

"My mistake. A dirt-and-gravel area that abuts a parking lot. Where did they find a yurt in Yaphank, Long Island, anyway?"

"At Hertz Rental Yurts."

Dad snorted when Mom said that, I don't know why. She put her hand on the back of his neck and scratched his hair.

"And Castle?" She sounded kind of gooey.

"Yes?"

"I have a sixteen-ounce bag of peanut m&m's in my purse."

"Every day, yet another reason to adore you."

And right that minute we were at Docky's building and he was standing in front waiting for us. Dad got the stroller and a bag out of the trunk and Mom got Scrapple and me out of the car.

"Thank you so much, Sidney. I can tell that Eliot is excited to be here since he has already latched on to your knee. Not to mention the shrieking the instant he saw you from the window." Mom looked down at me. "Could you let go of Doctor Perlmutter, please, so Dad can put you in the stroller?"

"Hi, Eliot. If you sit in there, you and Scrapple and I can go upstairs to my apartment and then we're going to do something new, okay? All three of us."

 _"_ _What are we going to do?"_

"You're sure you're all right with this, Kate? Castle? We won't go fast and it's very safe, but I just want to make sure that you have no concerns."

"You're a doctor," Dad said. "I'm confident that they're in good hands. Don't forget to take pictures."

So Mom and Dad left and we went up to Docky's. Right there next to his front door was his bicycle with the trailer attached to it, the one he told me about on my birthday. Docky held up the bag that Dad had given him. "Your helmet and Scrapple's helmet are in here, so we'll put your stroller inside, and we'll all get our helmets on and be off to the park."

Docke buckled Scrapple and me into the bicycle trailer which is blue like my helmet, and pushed us along until we got out onto the street.

"Are you boys ready?"

 _"_ _Yes! This is my first bicycle ride!"_

 _"_ _Yeah! Same here."_

And we zoomed along past the buildings and trees and trucks and cars and fire hydrants and trash cans and pigeons and people and dogs walking and bingo! (that's what Dad likes to say) we were in the park. It was fun to go so much faster than in the stroller, and to get to have Scrapple next to me. His ears went out sideways in the wind and he looked like an airplane. After a while Docky pulled over to the side near a big rock with a statue on top of it and stopped so he could talk to us.

 _"_ _That's a dog!"_

 _"_ _Doesn't look like me, though."_

"You're right, it's a statue of Balto. He was a wonderful and very brave Siberian husky who led a lot of other sled dogs through the snow to bring medicine to people in a place called Alaska. He saved their lives and this statue helps remind us of what an important thing he did."

 _"_ _Could Scrapple pull a sled?"_

 _"_ _My legs are too short. I'd get stuck in the snow."_

 _"_ _Why is Balto's nose so shiny?"_

Docky laughed. "That's because so many people have rubbed it."

 _"_ _Why do they do that?"_

"Probably because they like him. Maybe it's their way of saying hello and thanking him for what he did. Maybe some people do because they think it's good luck. Scrapple, why don't you and Eliot stand in front of Balto and I'll take your photo. I'll take off your helmets first, though."

He did, and then he showed us our picture. "You boys look very heroic. Intrepid."

 _"_ _I thought intrepid was an aircraft carrier. Eliot and I don't look like an aircraft carrier."_

"You're very wise, Scrapple. The Intrepid is indeed an aircraft carrier that's now a museum right here in the city, on the river, but the word intrepid means adventurous."

 _"_ _We're adventurous. We're on an adventure today."_

"That's right, we are, so let's get back on the bike and see more of the park."

We rode all over the place and then we stopped for a while and got to kick some leaves around and Scrapple peed. And then we all sat on a bench to have a snack.

 _"_ _Thanks for the biscuit, Docky."_

"You're welcome, Scrapple."

 _"_ _Is that bicycle trailer big enough for two children and a dog?"_

"Yes, it is. Do you think we should invite a friend of Eliot's to come with us next time?"

 _"_ _No, I was just thinking that after Eliot's brother or sister is born, the baby could come, too."_

 _"_ _Scrapple! That was a secret! We weren't supposed to tell."_

 _"_ _Oops, sorry. I thought it would be okay to tell Docky since he's our friend and besides he's a doctor."_

"Oh, my. Look, I promise I won't tell anyone. Your secret's safe with me. But that's great news, isn't it?"

 _"_ _You know what, Docky? I can talk to the baby and it talks back to me. I want to call it a name, not just Baby. Maybe you can help."_

"I'll try. Have you been thinking of some names?"

 _"_ _Yeah, but I need to find out something. The baby is going to be born at Easter, and I like rabbits, so I thought I could call it after the Easter Bunny."_

"You want to call the baby 'Easter Bunny'?"

 _"_ _No, that would be silly. I want to call it the first letters of Easter Bunny, like our friend Matthew John is called MJ. Could you tell me the Easter Bunny's first letters?"_

"Sure. First letters are called initials, and the Easter Bunny's initials are EB. That's a good nickname, EB. And it's one of your initials, too, E, E for Eliot, so the baby can share part of your name."

 _"_ _What's my initial?"_

"S. Scrapple begins with S, like my name, Sidney. So you and I share, too."

 _"_ _Since you can talk to Scrapple and me, do you think you could talk to EB? Not now, but after Mom and Dad tell everyone? I think that''s going to be pretty soon because this morning Mom said, 'I can't keep this a secret much longer, Castle. I'm popping out of everything.' I don't know exactly what that means, the only pop thing I know is popcorn, but she said secret, so I think it's the baby, don't you?"_

Docky coughed a lot and took out his handkerchief and blew his nose.

 _"_ _Are you okay? Do you have a cold?"_

"No, I'm fine, thank you. I must have swallowed that bite of apple wrong. Well, to answer your question, maybe you should be the only one to talk to EB for a while. Once the baby is born, though, I will be very happy to talk with him or her. I'm sure we'll understand each other perfectly, just like you, Scrapple and I do. And then we can be the three musketeers plus one."

"Plus One! That's funny! That was my name when I was inside Mom. Because she had her vest that said POLICE + 1."

"Oh, I remember that vest. Well, let's ride a little more before we head back to my apartment?"

We did, and even though it was exciting, near the end I fell asleep and so did Scrapple. We woke up when we were in Docky's elevator. And then it started to rain so it's a good thing we were indoors, where we had lunch and a nap and played and read a book called _Pretzel_ which is about a dachshund. And then Mom and Dad rang the doorbell, and it was time to go home.

When we got there Mom said the wedding had worn her out and she was going to lie down on the sofa for a while. I wanted to talk to the baby, so I got up with Mom.

 _"_ _Hi, Baby, how was the wedding?"_

 _"_ _Boring. I didn't have anyone to talk to."_

 _"_ _Did you get cake?"_

 _"_ _Yes, but it was horrible."_

 _"_ _How can cake be horrible?"_

 _"_ _All the food was horrible. Dad told Mom he had to spit it in his napkin. And then he had to find another napkin to spit more food into."_

 _"_ _I bet Mom will eat something you like later, like ice cream. But wait 'til you're out of there and they make you eat oatmeal. It's super horrible. But you know what?"_

 _"_ _What?"_

 _"_ _I have a name for you now so I won't have to call you baby. You're EB, okay? Short for Easter Bunny, who is a magic rabbit who brings candy at Easter, which is when you're going to be born. Do you like your name?"_

 _"_ _Yeah!"_

 _"_ _I'm going to go get my favorite toy to show you. It's Peter Rabbit, who is a bunny, too, but in a book. Dad gave him to me the day I was born. I know you can't see in there, but maybe you can feel him on Mom's belly. I'm going to get him, he's right over there on the rug."_

So I got down all by myself and picked up Peter Rabbit and brought him back and put him on Mom's belly. But you know what? She and EB were asleep so I left Peter Rabbit there. I hope EB can feel how soft he is.

When I went to bed later Mom and Dad tucked me in and just when I was falling asleep I heard her say, "Eliot left Peter Rabbit on my stomach. He never leaves him behind. What do you think that was about?"

I have to remember to tell her.

 **A/N** EB joins Eliot in thanking you for reading their story.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Uh-oh, I don't know what Mom and Dad are going to say. And Gram and Granddad and Alexis. The only ones who knew at first were Scrapple and me. I decided to tell Docky in case he could help, so he now he does, too. But that's all. They'll find out pretty soon. Wow. This a different kind of amazeballs, gigantic amazeballs.

Here's how I found out.

Last night Mom was reading me a bedtime story, _Pretzel and the Pups_. It's another book about Pretzel the dachshund except now he and Greta the dachshund have five puppies. Scrapple and I love it because Pretzel gets into lots of trouble. After Mom finished we sat in the rocking chair for a while and Scrapple was on the floor next to us.

 _"_ _Hi, Eliot."_

 _"_ _Oh, hi EB. How did you like the story?"_

 _"_ _Fine. But I'm not EB."_

 _"_ _Don't you like your name? I thought you said you did. Do you want me to call you something else?"_

 _"_ _EB likes the name EB, but I'm not EB, I'm the other one."_

 _"_ _The other one who?"_

 _"_ _The other baby. Your brother or sister. I don't have a name. Can I get one?"_

 _"_ _What? There are two of you? I thought EB was all alone in there like I used to be. I'm confused. Can you get EB, please?"_

 _"_ _Okay."_

 _"_ _Wait! Wait! Other Baby?"_

 _"_ _Yes?"_

 _"_ _Are you sure you're not EB and playing a joke on me because you know I love jokes?"_

 _"_ _Nope, I'm not. I promise. Hang on."_

I heard some swishing noise, which was probably Other Baby swimming around, and then I heard EB.

 _"_ _Hi, Eliot."_

 _"_ _I want to make sure that's you. Can you and Other Baby say something at the same time so I know there really are two of you?"_

 _"_ _Sure. What do you want us to say?"_

 _"_ _I dunno. How about 'Hi, Scrapple'."_

And they did! There really are two babies. Scrapple was so shocked he couldn't think of anything to say, and that never happens. He's a chatterbox like me. Then I thought of something important.

 _"_ _EB, how come you never told me about Other Baby before?"_

 _"_ _Didn't know it was here. We live in two different sacs and I never noticed Other Baby because it was always behind me and it's smaller than I am. And then yesterday it said hi and I turned around and said hi back and I asked why didn't you talk before and Other Baby said, 'I didn't have anything to say.' It's nice to have company down here, though."_

 _"Yikes, that must have been a big surprise. Um, I have to go to sleep now. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow."_

Usually I don't want Mom to leave but right then I did because I really had to think of a plan of how to tell her there are two babies. I thought and thought and then I figured it out. I could tell Docky and he could tell Mom and Dad.

This morning we were having breakfast and I kept trying to get out of my high chair for my plan.

"Eliot, what's going on?" Mom said. "You have to stay there until you finish eating."

So even though I love apples I pushed the pieces off the tray and said "no" and Scrapple got them. Then I tried to get out again.

Dad told me to stay there, too, and gave me a piece of toast which I dropped for Scrapple even though I was hungry. And then I tried to get out again.

It worked! Mom said, "somebody's being a fuss budget," but she had to leave for work and so Dad decided I could get out. That was my plan. I held out my arms so he would put me on his lap. That was my plan, too, because I wanted to see his phone which was on the table in front of him. I pointed at it. "Doc."

"What, Eliot?"

This time I smacked the phone. "Doc."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you want, buddy."

Geez, Dad. Okay, I'll say Docky's name a whole bunch of times. "Doc! Doc! Doc! Doc! Doc! Doc!" And I put my hand on the phone again.

"Oh! You want to call Doctor Perlmutter?"

I nodded my head.

"Well, I think he's at work, so I'm not sure we should bother him."

No, that wasn't good. That wasn't my plan. Dad hates it when I cry, so I decided to do that and say Docky's name again, too.

"Shhh, shhh, don't cry. I'll tell you what, I'll text him and see if we can stop by sometime to day to say hi. If he has time. Okay?"

I nodded and then I smiled so he would know I was happy. And Dad texted him. Almost right away his phone rang.

"Hi, thanks so much, Perlmutter. I don't know what it is, but your little friend here seems hell bent on seeing you today. Would you mind if we swung by later, brought you a cup of coffee? Just for a minute."

And Docky must have said yes because afterwards Dad said we'd see him at eleven.

Dad and Scrapple and I took the subway to where Docky works. As soon as he came out I said "Boh boh la ffff" which he knew meant I had to tell him a secret.

"Castle, could I ask you a small favor, please?"

"No favor too big, Perlmutter, since you let us interrupt you like this. What can I do for you?"

"I got called in very early and didn't have a chance to eat anything. You very kindly brought me this coffee, but if I look after Eliot and Scrapple, would you be willing to go to the deli around the corner and get me a bagel with cream cheese, please? I don't want to leave here, just in case."

So Dad went off and I thanked Docky because he was so smart to think of that! Then I told him about the two babies. He put his hand on his mouth and then he rubbed his head. He kept starting to say something and then he didn't but finally he did and he told us when there are two babies inside they're called twins.

 _"_ _Are they boys or girls?"_

"I don't know. They could be boys or girls, or one of each. We'll find out when they're born."

 _"_ _A lot of people thought I was going to be a girl but I'm not."_

"No, you're not. You know, I was sure you were going to be a boy."

 _"_ _You were? How come?"_

"I just was."

 _"_ _So we were friends even before I was born?"_

"I think we were."

 _"_ _You can tell Mom and Dad there are twins, right?"_

Docky smiled and said, "Well, Eliot, you know, I think maybe your mother's doctor should tell them."

 _"_ _But you're a doctor, why can't you?"_

"Doctor Fisher is a special doctor for women who are having babies, and it's better if she tells them. They're going to have a lot of questions that she'll be able to answer, okay?"

 _"_ _Why didn't Doctor Fisher tell them already?"_

"She probably doesn't know yet. But she has a special machine that she'll be using very soon to make sure everything is all right. The machine lets you see how the baby is—how the babies are—doing, and takes a kind of picture of them, called a sonogram.

 _"_ _Oh, I remember that! That was when they put that cold stuff on Mom's stomach. I nearly froze in there. Are you sure the doctor will take that picture soon?"_

"Oh, yes, very sure."

 _"_ _Can I ask you something else? Other Baby wants a name. Could we use the initials? What are they?"_

"Ah, that would be O, B. Obi."

 _"_ _Like Obi-Wan Kanobi! Dad has an action figure of him. Obi is a cool name, right?"_

"An excellent choice. Oh, look, here comes your father."

We stayed a little bit and then Docky went inside and we went to the subway. I guess Scrapple and I just have to keep the secret about the twins for a while. At least when Mom gets home I can tell Other Baby the new name, Obi.

Okay, I was finished with this part of the story, but just before bedtime Mom and Dad were talking about, guess what? Tomorrow she has the sonogram! So I'll finish this tomorrow.

I'm back. It's today, the day that yesterday was tomorrow. In the morning Mom said, "God, Castle, I'm a whale already. I swear I wasn't half this big at three months with Eliot."

 _"_ _Ooooh, Mom, I know why!"_

"Well, every pregnancy's different."

"I'm aware of that, Castle. And you were supposed to say that I'm not a whale."

"You're not a whale. But I'd love you even if you were, Shamu."

I don't know who Shamu is, but Mom laughed. While she wasn't looking I put Peter Rabbit in her bag so he would be with EB and now Obi at the sonogram. But then they decided I was going to go with them, and afterwards Mom would go to work and Dad I would come home.

When we were in the waiting room, Dad said that he had read that the baby's vocal cords were developing.

 _"_ _Did you hear that, EB and Obi? I think vocal cords are what let you make noise. Like when I was born I really yelled and Dad said I was the noisiest kid on the block. Maybe you can practice while you're in there."_

Mom had to go in by herself for a while to see Doctor Fisher and then someone came out and said we could go in her room.

"Castle? Look what was in my bag." She held up Peter Rabbit. "I found it when I was changing."

"Aww."

"Did you put it there?"

"Nope.

"Did you put it there, sweet pea?"

I nodded.

"For the baby?"

 _"_ _Babies. Two babies."_

But Doctor Fisher and a helper came in so we didn't talk any more about Peter Rabbit. They put that goo on Mom's stomach and asked if she was ready and she said yes. And right after that there was a whoosh and another whoosh which were the babies' heartbeats and everyone kind of screamed TWINS! at the same time. So it's not a secret any more.

Dad was hanging on to Mom's hand the whole time, and he said, "Oh, my God."

And Mom said, "Oh, my God."

And I clapped because it was exciting.

Everyone was talking so much I couldn't keep anything straight, but when they finished instead of going to work Mom came home with us. We got in a taxi and she kissed Dad right on the mouth and he kissed her right on the mouth and she put her head on his shoulder and said, "Oh, my God. Three under two."

I don't know what that means, do you?


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

As soon as we came home from the sonogram we went to the kitchen and I sat down on the floor to pat Scrapple because he must have missed us while we were out.

Dad poured two glasses of water and handed one to Mom. "I'd love to give you something stronger, but I can't. However, in deference to you, I will forgo the Champagne and or double Scotch that the circumstance demands, and drink this instead. It reminds me, though, that I have some ideas for what to call the babies."

 _"_ _I already named them Dad, you don't have to think of any."_

"How about Double and Trouble?"

She gave him one of those looks she has. You've seen Mom, so I bet you know what it was.

"Heckle and Jeckle?"

"No cartoon characters, Castle. And they're magpies, for God's sake. "

"Luke and Leia?"

"Or _Star Wars_ characters."

 _"_ _But Mom! One of our twins is Obi like in_ Star Wars _."_

"Frick and Frack."

"Not a chance."

"Romulus and Remus? Castor and Pollux? Come on, Beckett, you love classical mythology."

"Naming our children for ones who were raised by a she-wolf? No."

"Okay, so how about twins from literary masterpieces? Tweedledum and Tweedledee? Viola and Sebastian?"

"Viola and Sebastian, now you're talking. Those I like. Gimme some Shakespeare." Mom drank some of her water and sat down at the counter. "Let me ask you. Do you have reams of these stored up somewhere? Are you going to torment me with them through this entire pregnancy? This unexpected-in-every-way, two-for-one pregnancy?"

"Not torment, Beckett. Entertain. Entertain and delight. So, if you don't like any of these suggestions, how about—"

"Stop right there."

Dad stopped right there. Mom was looking at him. I was looking back and forth at them, Mom-Dad, Dad-Mom, because I love it when they do stuff like this even though I don't know what's going on most of the time. They're so funny. And then Dad raised his hand like he wanted to ask a question.

"How about…Sodom and Gomorrah?"

Sometimes Dad makes Mom explode. Good explode, not bad explode. Whoever Sodom and Gomorrah are, that got Mom to explode. She was laughing so hard she almost fell right over onto the floor.

"Six months of this, right, Castle?"

"Probably only five, given that twins usually arrive ahead of schedule."

"Oh, well then. Okay." Mom laughed again and then the weirdest thing happened boom, like that, because she looked scared like I did the other day when I tried to climb up on the stool and hit my head. "Wait, five months? I have five months to get ready to have three children in the house? All in diapers? Two breastfeeding? I can't do it. I can't." And then she started to cry and that made me sad, so I walked over and hugged her around her knee.

"Mama. Babies." I patted her belly.

She put her hand on top of my head. "That's right, sweet pea, babies."

Dad was hugging Mom from behind her. "Mom makes wonderful babies, Eliot. You turned out so great that this time she decided to make two babies instead of one."

 _"_ _I know, Dad. I knew that before the sonogram machine did!"_

"But Castle." Mom sounded like she was worried about something and maybe she was going to cry all over again. "We have to get two of everything now, not one. Another bassinet. A double stroller. Another carrier. Two more cribs—no, four, because we'll need them in the Hamptons, too—and two more car seats and another bouncy chair and about a thousand onesies. How are we going to be able to manage all this?"

Dad gave her a kiss on her neck, which is a funny place for a kiss if you ask me. "You do know we're rich, right? Remember? We're loaded. We can do this."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know it isn't, but it partly is. What I mean is that money doesn't just get us things, it gets us help. And we will get as much help as we need, okay? And we have plenty of room upstairs since Mother and Alexis have their own places now."

She still looked a little bit sad and I saw her bag next to the table by me so I got Peter Rabbit out of it and gave him to her. "Babies. Happy."

"Aww, Eliot, that's a new word for you! Happy! I didn't know that you could say that. You're a happy boy. You make me happy and the babies will be happy. Did I upset you because I was crying? I'm fine. I was just so surprised to find out about the twins that it scared me for a minute."

 _"_ _EB and I could have told you, Mom. We've been in here together from the beginning."_

Dad was still hugging Mom from behind her. "What do you think, Eliot and Scrapple, should we get two more puppies, too?"

 _"_ _No. I like being top dog. I don't want another dog, especially two."_

"Castle, if you bring so much as a guppy in here I'm going to Australia."

 _"_ _What's a guppy, Mom?"_ That was EB asking.

 _"_ _What's a guppy, Mom?"_ That was Obi.

 _"_ _Is a guppy like a puppy? Hey, I made another rhyme! Are you really going to Australia? Could you get us a pet kangaroo?"_

"Understood, Beckett. No guppy. You feeling a little better?"

Mom looked up at Dad. "Yes, I am. Thank you."

"Do you think people forty blocks away heard us screaming 'TWINS'?"

"Probably. It does make me realize that we haven't told our parents and Alexis yet. We should do it right away."

 _"_ _You don't have to tell Docky haha!"_

"This has been a pretty emotional morning, Beckett. How about if you put your feet up for a little while? The news is going to keep for a few hours."

"I'm not so sure about that. I feel like I look bigger every second. But you're right. I'm going to take my shoes off and go lie down."

"El-yut come?"

Mom picked me up and gave me a big smooch. "Yes, Eliot, my little snuggler, come take a map with Mom."

We went and got on the big bed and she fell right to sleep, but not me. I wanted to tell the twins something.

 _"_ _Hi, EB. Hi, Obi. It's me, Eliot."_

 _"_ _Hi."_

 _"_ _Hi."_

 _"_ _Were you okay in there for the sonogram, since I warned you that stuff they put on Mom's stomach would be cold?"_

 _"_ _Yeah, we're fine. It feels like Mom's lying down now, right?"_

 _"_ _She was so amazed when she found out that there were two of you inside her that it made her kind of tired, so she's taking a nap. I have to tell you guys something."_

 _"_ _Okay."_

 _"Sometimes when I was in there where you are and I wanted something I could make Mom want it, too. I would say it and even though she didn't understand me she kind of knew it. It's sort of magic. It didn't always work, but some of the time. Like if I wanted her to sing a song she would. Things like that. But also there are things I really like to eat, like cookies, so I would talk about that and if I was lucky she might say, 'Huh, I have a sudden craving for an Oreo' and she'd get one."_

 _"_ _We could do that, right EB?"_

 _"_ _That's a great idea. Thanks, Eliot."_

 _"_ _Here's the thing, you guys. When Mom feels tired or sad ice cream cheers her up but lots of times she won't eat it. Dad says she's a health nut, which I don't get because she's not a nut, she's a person. But anyway, I think when she wakes up she would feel so happy if she ate some ice cream. You like ice cream, right? And you know what her favorites are?"_

 _"_ _Oh yeah! One of them is lime sorbet. That's the one I like best."_

 _"_ _What about you, EB?"_

 _"_ _Peanut butter fudge."_

 _"_ _That's really Dad's favorite."_

 _"_ _Yeah, but she steals it from him."_

 _"_ _Okay, so here's what you should do. When Mom gets up, tell her how much you would really, really like some lime sorbet and some peanut butter fudge ice cream. You might have to say it a couple of times. But it might make her have some, and that would make her so happy and you would be happy, too. Got it?"_

 _"_ _Yup."_

 _"_ _Okay. You should take a nap now."_

I scooted down off the bed and went to find Dad and Scrapple. Later on when we were making a big tower with blocks Mom came into the living room.

"Hi, boys. Having fun?"

 _"_ _Yes! We're the Castle Construction Company!"_

"We're having a lot of fun. Did you have a good nap?"

"I did. I did. I feel so much better. I'm sorry about the freak out before."

"No apologies necessary. Would you like something? Tea? Anything?"

Mom smiled and rubbed her hand on her belly, "It's the funniest thing, but I'm suddenly desperate for lime sorbet and peanut butter fudge ice cream. I'm going to get a bowl."

"Together? Those two together? Beckett! I can't believe it."

"What can I say, Castle? I'm pregnant."

See? It worked.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Mom and Dad decided to invite Gram and Granddad and Alexis to brunch on Sunday so they could tell everybody in the family about the twins all at once.

"Beckett, this is my job. Leave it to me, okay? Cooking, flowers, everything. The menu is going to be a surprise."

"Surprise, hmm? You don't think the information is surprise enough? Is there perhaps a mystery element to this meal?"

"I'm not a mystery writer for nothin'."

Ooh, I love mysteries.

The next morning after Mom left for work Dad said, "Ready to be my assistant?"

"Yah, Dada!"

"Okay then, follow me into the office."

We got in his chair and he turned on the computer. "We're going to look for things to make place cards. Do you know what those are?"

"No."

"Sometimes at a fancy party or just for fun when there are a lot of people who are going to sit down to eat at the table, there is a little card at each place. Each one has a person's name on it so everyone knows where to sit. Got it?"

"Yah."

"One time before I knew Mom I was at a party like that and I saw the card of the person who was supposed to sit next to me but I didn't like her at all, so you know what I did?"

"No?"

"When nobody was looking I switched her place card for the card of a lady I _did_ like at another table!"

I clapped for that! _"That's so funny, Dad!"_

"Oh, you approve of that, huh? You're definitely a chip off the old block."

 _"_ _I'm not a chip, I'm a boy. And my blocks are pretty new. Granddad gave them to me for my birthday."_

"Okay, you and I are going to make place cards for our brunch. But I won't switch any this time, I promise. This brunch is going to be about doubles, which are two of the same thing. Our twins are doubles, because there are two of them, right?"

 _"Right_ _! I knew that ages ago."_ I tried to give him a Mom look and it must have been pretty good because he laughed.

"Oh, Eliot, you've got your mother down pat."

I think he meant that I made a face like she does, even though she's not here so I can't pat her.

"Our place cards are going to be very cool, because each one will have a different picture, not just the person's name. The first thing I'm going to look for online is a picture of a double play. That's something in baseball that Mom and Granddad love, at least when the Yankees do it, not when some team does it to them. Let's see what we can find."

Dad was looking at a lot of pictures and I saw Mom's favorite player from before so I patted the screen to show Dad. "Mama!"

"Hey, kid, eagle eye. That's right, that's Mom's all-time favorite player, Don Mattingly, and he is, indeed, executing a double play with Willie Randolph in, hmm, nineteen eighty-seven. She was just a little girl in pigtails then. I'm going to download this and work on it later. This is for Granddad, though, not Mom. We're going to do Gram's next."

"Gaga!"

"You're right, gaga. Sometimes Gram goes a bit gaga. Over the top is her specialty. When she was a kid she rocked a jump rope game called Double Dutch. See? Look at that video! But we need a photo, so, ah, here we go, one from nineteen fifty-three of two girls in Double Dutch. Right time frame for Gram. Done."

It took a while to get everything. The last one was a picture of peas for EB and Obi. "Two peas in a pod, Eliot. That's what the twins are."

 _"_ _Peas are vegetables, Dad. The twins are babies."_

Dad wouldn't show me what he picked for me because he said I should get a surprise like everyone else. I guess that's fair except I'm his assistant.

"While we're here I'm going to order some beautiful flowers for the table. We need double ones, that's flowers that have extra petals and look like a little flower inside a big flower, like peonies. Mom loves those. They're out of season, but I bet we can find somebody who has them. He was humming and then he said, "Bingo!" and showed me a picture of the peonies, which were white with red in the middle.

"We're all set. I know exactly what I'm going to make for us to eat for brunch, especially since I found a place right near us that sells the magic ingredient I need for eggs Benedict. You haven't had those. You'll love them. So, it's twelve-thirty now, you want some lunch?"

"Ehs!"

"Eggs? Oh, you want eggs Benedict?"

"Yah!"

"You don't want to wait 'til Sunday?"

"No."

"Okay, here's the deal. This will be eggs Benedict, just not with the sauce, okay? And the magic ingredient. It will taste the same but the magic ingredient makes it look different."

I loved them. I could eat them every day because they have bacon underneath and an English muffin. Scrapple liked them too, the bacon part, anyway, since by mistake I dropped a piece on the floor and he ate it.

Finally it was Sunday, which is today. Dad showed me the place cards he made, except mine, and the name part is all swirly, not like letters in my books. While he was getting the brunch ready Mom took me for a walk. I decided to tell EB and Obi what was going to happen so they could get ready for a lot of carrying on. That's what Gram calls it when people are excited, carrying on.

We sat down for a while on a bench in the dog run at the park so Scrapple could bark and chase the ball.

 _"_ _Hi, EB and Obi."_

 _"_ _Hi, Eliot."_

 _"_ _Everybody in our family is going to find out about you today, so watch out!"_

 _"_ _Watch out for what?"_

 _"_ _I bet Gram and Alexis put their hands on Mom's belly to see if they can feel you."_

 _"_ _We'll swim away too fast!"_

 _"_ _We'll fool them! I'll hide behind EB again so they won't know I'm there. And I'll hold my breath."_

 _"_ _Oh, and another thing. Dad is making something really good called eggs Benedict. You guys will love it. Bye."_

When Mom and I got home it smelled so good. "Ooh, what's in the oven?"

"In yours or mine?"

 _"_ _We all have the same oven, Dad."_

"Castle!"

"Right. Double apple pie."

Dad had set the table with the special cards and the flowers and Mom was amazed. "I believe I have detected a theme here."

 _"_ _That's because you're a detective, Mom."_

"You have?"

"I'm seeing double, right? Smelling double, too, with that pie. Double everything. My card has a knot? A double half hitch?"

"Because I'm so glad we got hitched, tied the knot."

"Oh, brother, Castle. But really, they're so imaginative. And the calligraphy, wow. It's gorgeous. Don't tell me you did that?"

"Of course I did. I told you this was all my job."

"Doesn't mean you couldn't have found a helper."

 _"_ _I helped, Mom. I was Dad's assistant."_

"A calligraphy helper? Nope, all me. I researched it for a book years ago and then never used it, but I knew it would come in handy someday. If I give up writing I can become a wedding invitation addresser."

"Good to know we won't go hungry."

 _"_ _You won't be hungry, Mom. Wait 'til you taste the eggs!"_

And then the doorbell rang and everybody came in all at once. "Welcome to brunch brunch," Dad said, which was a hint. They were starting to sit down in the living room but Dad said everybody had to come to the table right away before the food got cold, which I think was a fib. I think he was just excited for everybody to guess the mystery theme.

"The table looks beautiful, Katherine."

"Thank you, Martha, but it was all your son's doing. He's in charge today."

"Oh, yes, the place cards. I should have known. _Calm Before the Storm_. He even wrote the grocery list in calligraphy when he was working on that. Left me notes in calligraphy. Oh, my Lord, look at this picture. Double Dutch. That takes me back."

"Mine has Mattingly and Randolph. Gotta be, what, eighty-six, Katie?" Granddad held the card up to Mom.

"No, eighty-seven."

Gram looked at Mom and did this thing with one eyebrow making it go up that I wish I could do. I tried, but I don't have very much eyebrow yet. Dad said, "Don't even ask, Mother."

Alexis leaned over to look at her card. "Double doors, Dad? What's that about?"

"Because you're opening another door in your life with grad school."

"What do you have, Eliot?" Alexis picked me up and put me in my high chair. "Ah, double-decker bus. That's one of your favorite toys, isn't it? And what did Dad give himself? Hmm. Double scoop ice cream cone? Understatement, Dad. Yours should be triple, at least."

"Wouldn't be appropriate for the day," Dad said, which was another hint.

When everybody sat down Dad brought in the plates with the eggs on them. "Here we are. Eggs Benedict. I haven't put the hollandaise on them—that's the pitcher of it there, next to Jim—because I wanted you all to see these great double-yolk eggs. There's a farm near here that specializes in them. And here's the baby pea salad with cashews, watercress, water chestnuts and scallions in a mustard vinaigrette. Dig in!"

 _"_ _When is somebody gonna guess the doubles theme, Dad?"_

There was a lot of talking but nobody said anything about the theme. It was almost time for dessert when Gram said, "Katherine, weren't you supposed to have your first sonogram a few days ago?"

"Yes, I did."

"And I'm hoping since you didn't say anything that everything's fine?"

"Oh, yes, fine. More than fine."

"Are you going to show us the picture, Katie? I still have the first one of Eliot."

"Me, too. Kate. I want to put them together, a pair."

"A pair, right. You have no idea," Dad said and I could tell he was trying hard not to jump up and down and yell "twins!"

 _"_ _You look like you're going to explode, Dad!"_

"Excuse me for just a moment," Mom said and she got up from the table. I thought she was getting the sonogram pictures but she walked to her and Dad's room and I could hear her rattling around in the closet. When she came back she was wearing her bullet-proof vest that Dad gave her! The one that says POLICE + 1, but she had put tape over the 1 and made a 2. The first person to see it, besides me, was Dad. I could tell he didn't know Mom was going to do that because he burst out laughing so hard he couldn't talk.

Mom stood by her chair and said, "Surprise!"

Gram dropped her fork and it bounced on the table and some peas flew off it onto the floor but Scrapple was right there so no one had to clean it up. "Katherine! Are you having? Is that, uh, _two_? Twins?"

"Yes, surprise, surprise!" Mom said.

 _"_ _Here they come, Obi and EB!"_

And then everyone jumped up and ran over to Mom and was hugging her. And they were all yelling at the same time and asked about a million questions. And Alexis asked if she could put her hand on Mom's belly to see if she could feel them.

 _"_ _Told you she'd do that."_

After a while everyone sat back down and Dad gave us all some apple pie and the sonogram pictures. Granddad was the one who finally figured it all out.

"Double. Everything today was about doubles, wasn't it, Rick? That's so clever. A bell went off in my head when I looked at all the cards, but—."

"You should have answered that bell, Dad."

"I should have."

"Thank you, Jim, and I salute you. It took a lawyer to figure out my theme. Your daughter clearly got her gift of deductive reasoning from you. She likes to torture me with it from time to time."

"Mama?"

"Yes, Eliot?"

"Mama?"

"Oh, you want to sit on my lap?"

"Yah."

"While you still have one, Beckett."

"Castle!"

Mom's lap is going away? Where?


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

 **A/N** This chapter is the first of a two-part arc.

Today was a big, gigantic day, but I didn't know that it was going to be. It really started a couple of days ago, so I'll tell you about that one first.

The morning after our doubles brunch, Mom, Dad and I were eating breakfast.

"Today's it, Castle. Definitely can't wait any longer. I can't believe that no one has even hinted at it, though, especially Lanie."

"Really? Not a single pointed remark? A small, scalpel-in-hand query?"

"Nope. Not one."

"Maybe everyone's just being respectful, now that you're the Captain."

Mom looked at Dad like she thought he was crazy. "You're kidding, right?"

"I see your point. Well, you went through this a year and a half ago, so you don't need me to wish you luck, but I can't wait to hear the reaction."

I wasn't sure what they were talking about until after she left and Dad said, "Mom's going to tell everyone at work today that she's having a baby, two babies. You know what that means?"

"No?"

"It means that it's not a secret anymore, so you're off the hook."

 _"_ _What hook? I was on a hook? You mean like the ones for our jackets? You never put me up there, Dad!"_

The rest of the day with Dad and Scrapple was normal, until Mom got home. Dad was cooking and she came in to the kitchen and gave us both a kiss.

"How did it go, Beckett?"

Mom put her eyebrow up. She's almost as good as Gram at that. "You don't know?"

"How would I know? I've been here all day, except for an excursion to the playground where there was no police presence."

"Not one of your buddies from the Twelfth has called, texted, emailed or communicated in any way?"

"What, like sent a message by carrier pigeon? No. Though that would have been cool. Best use of a pigeon outside of pigeon en croute."

Mom plunked down on a stool and sighed. "Okay. Well, I decided to deliver the news to everyone at the same time and save myself having to tell it over and over. So I called a little gathering in the bullpen and said I was pregnant with twins and that my due date is in the middle of April."

"And?"

"And then Ryan put out his hand and said, 'Pay up, suckers!' And at least fifteen people came over and slapped bills—twenties, fifties, even a couple of hundreds—into his palm."

 _"_ _Why did they do that?"_

The water that Dad was drinking came out of his nose. Mom looked mad. "Really?"

He was coughing and laughing at the same time. "I'm sorry. I am, I mean it. Sorry. It's just, you know."

"Are you finished?"

"Almost."

"This had better be one of the best dinners you've ever made, Castle. I'm going to go take a shower and change into something comfier, which is anything with a waist that doesn't button."

Mom left the room and I looked at Dad. "Mama?"

"Mom's a little bit cranky."

"Oo?"

"Um, she told everyone at the precinct about the babies, but they had already guessed."

"Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh is right. I shouldn't have laughed and now I need to think of a really, really great dessert. We have about ten minutes. Tops. Okay, you and I are going to go down the block to Caffe Roma for some of their chocolate canoli. Mom would kill for those. We'll be so quick she won't even know we've gone."

 _"_ _Mom wouldn't kill anybody!"_

Dad was right about one thing, but not the other. We did get back before she finished changing but she didn't kill for the canoli. I just learned about opposites and she almost did the opposite from kill. When she took her first bite of dessert she said, "Oh, this is to die for." See what I mean? The opposite of kill! But she didn't die. I think that might be an expression. Docky taught me about expressions the other day. Anyway, Mom said she felt much better after dinner and that we had cheered her up so that was good.

Before I went to bed I asked the twins how it had been at work when Mom told everyone about them, and you know what they said?

 _"_ _Dunno, Eliot. We were playing together."_

 _"_ _Yeah, we weren't really paying attention."_

Good grief. I know they are just babies, but I'm going to have to explain some things to them. I'm their big brother.

That was a couple of days ago, but it partly had to do with what happened today that was so enormous. It was about Docky, EB, Obi and me.

Yesterday Docky called Dad and invited him, Scrapple and me to lunch today because it's his day off. Dad thought that was nice, even though he was a little bit surprised, but I wasn't I because I asked Docky about it the last time I saw him.

As soon as we got to Docky's apartment Dad sniffed his nose and said, "Perlmutter? Do I smell mac and cheese?"

"You do. I understand that it's a favorite of yours, not just of Eliot's, and it's one of my guilty pleasures. I make it with three kinds of cheese."

"Mmmmm!"

"You're not kidding, kiddo. Mmmmm."

"Thank you. I hope you'll both feel that way once you've actually tried it."

We did! It was yummy. Don't tell Dad, but it was even better than what he makes.

"I think you've achieved mac-and-cheese Nirvana, Perlmutter. Is there anything I can do to persuade you to share the recipe?"

Docky laughed and bowed and said, "I will give it to you with great pleasure." And then he looked very serious and cleared his throat. "Shall we go make ourselves comfortable on the sofa? Uh, Castle. Rick. There's something I'd like to talk to you about, feel I should talk to you about, but I have to double check with your son."

Dad looked a little bit nervous and a lot curious. "Okay."

Docky said, "Eliot, are you sure?"

"Yah."

"You really want me to tell your father?"

"YAH!"

"Okay. Why don't you sit up here in between us."

Then Dad was looking a lot nervous.

"Several months ago, as you know, I told Kate about my wife and our daughter. I also told her I thought that in some ways she and I were alike. Her mother's death shattered her as Judith and Abby's did me. Kate and I were both consumed with grief and rage, and cast into darkness. It was a terrible thing to see in a woman so young. I hated to see it. And then, over the last few years, I watched her find her way back, in no small way because of you, and that has given me enormous joy. But I also think, though this will come as a shock, that you and I may be more alike than you could ever have imagined. I know that you believe in fate and magic and fairy tales. I am a man of science, but that does not rule out my belief in things that cannot be explained. In fact, I became a doctor in part because I wanted at least some things in the universe to have concrete explanations.

"When I was a medical student I decided to specialize in pediatrics. I had always had an affinity for children and once I opened a practice, I discovered that I could speak to my patients."

Docky looked at Dad. "Actually speak to my patients."

"Right, of course. You, um, had an easy time relating to children so it was easy to speak with their parents? You certainly have an amazing bond with Eliot."

"No, I meant speak to the children. The babies. I could speak to the babies and they, to me. Not to all of them, but to quite a few. We understood each other. It's part of the reason why I was such a good diagnostician, because a baby could tell me what he or she was feeling."

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. You _talked_ to them? You talked, uh—

"I talked baby talk, yes. Not out loud, of course. Some of the time, yes, but not most of the time. It was wordless communication, if you will. And then I closed my practice, and I couldn't do it anymore, or didn't want to. Until that day you and Kate brought Eliot to the precinct so we could all meet him. The instant I saw him I could speak with him, isn't that right, Eliot?"

I said yes and patted him on the face.

"I felt right there as if that were Kate's gift to me, a fellow wounded soul. Other than with my own daughter, I've never had such fluency, for lack of a better word, with a little one as I have with Eliot. He's quite the conversationalist, too. You probably think this is my imagination, or fancifulness, but it's true. You must have your doubts? I certainly would in your position. And there is a reason why I'm telling you all this."

"Bhaaah la tii la."

"Excuse me a moment, Castle. Eliot has a request." Docky looked down at me. "You'd like me to tell him about that?"

"Yah. Shh babab mo."

"So he'll believe me?"

"Yah."

"Um. Eliot has asked me to tell you about Peter Rabbit."

"Peter Rabbit?" Dad's voice was so squeaky again.

"Yes. He loves his Peter Rabbit stuffed animal, has told me all about it, how you gave it to him the day he was born, and of course he often has it with him. But when he found out that Kate was going to have a baby right around Easter, he wanted to give the baby Peter Rabbit because it's like the Easter Bunny. So he has put it on her stomach in hopes that the baby could feel how soft the rabbit was, and he often drops it in her bag when she's going to work or to an appointment so that it will be near the baby."

Dad was making this funny gurgling noise like the water fountain by the playground. He looked kind of sick, too.

"I know this must be difficult to take in, even for someone who has great stock in magic, or whatever you want to call it. Would you like some water? Or, something stronger? You look like a single malt man to me."

Dad laughed a weird laugh. "Ah, you can read my mind, too, apparently. I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound rude. Yes, please. Scotch. I could definitely do with a Scotch. Definitely."

So Docky got up and made a drink for Dad and got some apple juice for me.

"This is not the end of the story, as you might have guessed, since I mentioned that there is a reason for me telling you all this."

Dad took a sip. "I have a feeling I might need another one of these."

"All right, well, then brace yourself. It's nothing bad, so please don't worry. It's just unusual."

"Oh, this is already a lot more than unusual."

"Right, okay. Well, just as Eliot talks to me, he talks to his soon-to-be sibling."

"That's not uncommon, right? You see expectant parents all the time talking to a belly, and the brother or sister, too?"

"That's true. But the babies, talk to Eliot, too."

"He does have a great imagination already. But, oh, babies? I didn't realize that you were at the meeting at the precinct yesterday? When Kate told everyone she's expecting twins."

"I wasn't. Eliot told me."

"Yah, Dada."

"He told me a few weeks ago. Before, um, before her sonogram. Do you remember the day he was so anxious to see me and you brought him round? And left him with me while you got me a bagel? That's when he told me there were twins. He wanted me to tell you, but I explained that it would be better for Kate's doctor to do that."

Dad's eyes were so wide open they took up almost his whole face. "Eliot?"

"Thh towo amuh bah."

"He says he wants you to know that the twins have names. He gave them names."

"Names?" Dad was even squeakier than before.

"Yes. EB, which is short for Easter Bunny—Eliot said that you have a friend known by his initials, MJ, so he asked me for the Easter Bunny's initials. He had been speaking with EB for quite some time before discovering, not long ago, the twin. He says that that one is smaller than EB and had apparently been hiding behind him or her until then. Eliot calls the smaller one Obi, short for Other Baby."

"Yah, Dada. B. B."

"Perlmutter? You wouldn't happen to have an oxygen tank on hand, would you? I think that's what I need now."

TBC

 **A/N** Thank you again to everyone who's along for this ride, with special thanks to guest reviewers: CatellumKeep, hawkie and many others who have left no names. I can't reply to you, so here's a public acknowledgement of my enormous gratitude.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

 **A/N** This chapter is the second of a two-part arc.

"Sorry, Castle, I have no oxygen on hand, but if you put your head out of the window and breathe deeply it might help."

Dad smiled and put his glass down on the coffee table. "I'll be okay. I want to make sure that I haven't concocted something in an eighty-proof haze, so I'm swearing off alcohol for the rest of this conversation. It's going to take a few minutes for me to digest everything you've been saying, though."

"Would you like some coffee? I'll make it while you're mulling all this over."

"Thanks, that would be great."

Docky went into the kitchen and Dad moved me on to his lap. We sat for a minute and then he put his hand around my chin. "You know what? I'm pretty amazed at what your friend told me just now. So if you ever want to talk to him, talk to him about the babies or anything, you just tell me, all right? And we'll go see him or call him on the phone."

"Doc? Yah."

"Yah."

Docky came back with coffee and cookies that he baked all by himself. When he sat down I got off Dad's lap and sat between him and Docky again.

"When Beckett was pregnant with Eliot, fairly early on, she said that sometimes she had a strong sense—usually when we were together, not with other people—that she heard a voice, the baby's voice. She said it was indistinct, that there were no words, but she had the sense that the baby was saying something to us. I told her that it kind of made sense and I still remember her response, exactly. 'This makes sense? Only in your universe, Castle. You don't think I'm nuts, do you?' I said no, I didn't, and that any kid of mine was bound to be a talker. I was kidding, but I wasn't kidding. We didn't really discuss that again, but now I'm wondering. Do you think that's all part of this? Do you think that Eliot was trying to speak to us?"

I was so excited! I patted Doc on the hand. "Mhho la shla bobo ro!"

Dad moved his head fast, fast, fast to look at me. "What?"

"Eliot says yes, he was trying to talking to you and Kate."

"Dur bluh doh."

"And he says that he talked to Kate more because, to quote him, 'I was hanging around with Mom all the time'."

"Th ho hoh! Glxx."

That made Docky laugh. "He says that's his joke. Because he really _was_ hanging around in there, sometimes upside down—again, his words." Docky looked at Dad. "You know, Eliot loves to make up puns. He excels at puns."

Dad's face was really different all of a sudden. He looked like he might cry and he looked like he was going to laugh, right at the same time.

"I apologize, Castle. Rick. I shouldn't have said that. I'm afraid I may have overstepped."

"No, no, not at all. Sorry, I'm a little bit choked up. Never thought you'd see that, right? This is all just so—so fantastic. Like the best kind of fantasy, except that it's real. I was gobsmacked at first and here I am, over the moon, you know? When I looked at Eliot just now I thought of that old-fashioned English slang, how wizard. He's wizard, this whole situation is wizard. He was talking to Beckett and me before he was born. And now he has conversations with his unborn siblings. Wow. And on top of everything else, I suddenly learn that my little boy not only loves word play but initiates it. You know how you said a few minutes ago—God, can you believe it was only a few minutes ago?—that when you met Eliot and felt an immediate connection that it was Kate's gift to you? I feel as though this is your gift to me, your telling me this about him. So thank you. Thank you."

Docky asked Dad and me if we would like another cookie and Dad said we'd share one.

"You're welcome. But it's Eliot who should get the thanks because it's he who insisted that I tell you. I was reluctant, but he didn't want me to be the only one to know about the twins, about him talking with the twins. I'm his friend, but you're his father. There is also a practical reason for me telling you, and for me the more important one. Multiple-birth pregnancies can be difficult. I know her first pregnancy was trouble-free, but there is the issue of her heart and also, at least at this stage, that one twin is significantly smaller than the other, is that right?"

"Yes."

"EB, the larger baby, told Eliot that he discovered Obi only a few days ago, when Obi said hello from behind him or her. EB was startled and asked why Obi hadn't talked before. Obi's reply was, 'I didn't have anything to say'."

Dad squeaked again and put his hand over his mouth, and then took it off. "Oh, my God, that's mini-Beckett! That's Beckett exactly."

I laughed so hard I got the hiccups!

"That's funny, isn't it, Eliot? Do you think Obi sounds like Mom?"

"Yah."

"Excuse me, Perlmutter. I know you were saying something important."

"It's, well, the twins already seem to tell Eliot everything and I think that they would tell him if there were anything wrong, should that happen. That they would tell Eliot long before it became apparent to Kate. And I'm sure that if you wanted to ask the twins something, Eliot could be the intermediary."

"Gls oo?"

"Oh, an intermediary is someone who talks to someone for another person who can't. It's a good thing to be. So if your Mom or Dad needs to know something about EB or Obi, you could ask them and then tell your parents. Or rather, you could tell me and I would tell your parents."

"Yuh tuh!"

That made Docky laugh, too. "You're right! I'd be an intermediary, too. You've got a very smart boy here, Castle."

"I hope we don't ever have to do it, but you're right. I understand. But, on a happier note, or, um, to be a little less serious for a minute—"

"I was hoping you would be."

"This, well, Eliot, can I ask you what you and EB and Obi talk about?"

"Yah."

"Doc will tell me your answers, okay? That all right with you, Perlmutter?"

"Of course. I never knew that I'd someday I'd function as a simultaneous translator."

"Eliot, did they tell you if they're boys or girls? Or maybe one is a boy and one is a girl."

 _"_ _I never knew when I was in there, Dad, and neither do they. You can find out though, can't you? With another sonogram picture? You wanted to with me and I wanted to know but Mom didn't want to, did she?"_

"You're right. It would be fun to know, wouldn't it?"

 _"Hey, Dad_ _! If you want to know and I want to know and EB and Obi want to know, how many people is that?"_

"Four."

 _"_ _Well Mom is only one person and we are four people so we should be allowed to find out."_

Dad laughed. "In a perfect world, yes. But Mom gets the big vote on this subject. What do you like to talk about with the twins? You're their big brother, so do you give them advice? Help them with things?"

"Yah!"

"What's the best one so far?"

 _"_ _How to get what they want from Mom sometimes."_

Docky was smiling and Dad said, "Really? Perlmutter, this could be a gold mine."

 _"_ _What's that?"_

"Just an expression. I think your Dad would like to know what kind of things the twins want."

 _"_ _I just tell them to do what I did. Like if they want her to take a bath, which they really like, they can make swishy noises and swim around a lot and that could make her think of a bath and give her the idea of having one, even though it's really their idea."_

"I might have to try that one myself."

 _"_ _What, Dad?"_

"Nothing, nothing. I'm just being silly."

 _"_ _Do you want to take a bath with Mom? Just make some swishy noises and I bet she will."_

Dad and Docky made these sounds like they were laughing but trying not to. I don't know why because I wasn't telling a joke.

"You sure you don't want the rest of that drink, Castle?"

"I believe I will. Thank you." Dad had some more swallows from his glass. "I think that might be enough for now. Not the Scotch, though that, too. I mean, I don't think my brain can absorb any more right now. I feel as though I've been living in a parallel universe and didn't know it. When this all sinks in I'll probably have to run outside and scream."

"Feel free to do it here, if you like. The neighbors are out."

"Do you remember the ghost wrangler case a few years ago? Probably not, since Lanie worked on it."

"No, I remember it. Quite intriguing, haunted house. Even though it turned out not to be haunted."

"Right. Well, Beckett wouldn't admit to the possibility of a ghost."

"I would have. Not out loud, of course."

Dad chuckled. I like that word, chuckle. "Thank you! A fellow believer. Anyway, I called her Skepticus Maximus at the time, and I'm afraid that's what I was when this whole afternoon began. But not anymore. About this, though. She was open to the possibility of hearing a fetal, um, commentary, but I don't know about this. This isn't a possibility or a suggestion, it's fact. Magic, but fact."

"I leave it up to you, Castle. Telling her about this is entirely your decision. I'm comfortable with whatever you do."

"Dada?"

"Oh, Eliot. I'm sorry. Yes?"

"Mama. Fee. Mama."

"Perlmutter, can you help me out here?"

 _"_ _Remember what happened after we went to the doctor and you found out there were two babies? And Mom was crying and everything because she was so surprised and scared for a minute? She called that freaking out? I think she might freak out if you tell her about this part. Maybe you could tell her later when she's more used to having two babies in there."_

"That's our boy, Perlmutter."

"Quite a boy."

"But you know that."

"I do."

 _"_ _I'm a boy, I know that!"_

"Well, Eliot, I think it's time for us to go before we take up all of Doc's time. It's been a big day, hasn't it? And Scrapple must need to go out."

So we said thank you and bye to Docky and he shook Dad's hand and gave me a kiss and patted Scrapple and said he'd see us soon. And when we got to the door I said, _"I'm glad you didn't tell Dad about how you and Scrapple and I talk."_

"That's just between us."

"You and Eliot keeping secrets from me?"

"Just one. Friends have to have one, don't they?"

Scrapple barked then, but luckily Dad didn't know what he said. He thought it was just a bark.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

When Dad is writing and Scrapple is snoozing and I'm in the office with them, I spend part of the time thinking. Here are some of the things I'm wondering about now. Dad told me there is a game called twenty questions. I can't count to twenty yet, but I have a lot of questions.

Why does Mom call Dad babe? He is a grown-up. The only other babe I know who is not a baby is the pig in the movie that Dad and I have watched a million times. Oh, and that reminds me. Sometimes Dad calls me kiddo since I am a kid, but why does Gram call him kiddo?

When we go somewhere in the car, I have to sit in the back seat by myself because Mom and Dad say it's too dangerous for me to be in the front. But when I was inside Mom l was in the front seat with her. Wasn't that dangerous?

Why do some people not have hair on their heads? Where did it go?

Why does Dad say he's going to hop into the shower? I never saw him hop, he just walks right in. Mom never says she's going to hop into the bathtub, which is good because she would have to hop so high to get over the side and she could get hurt.

Why do Scrapple and other dogs have four feet instead of two hands and two feet like me?

Why is Alexis called my half-sister and I am called her half-brother? We are not half a person.

Sometimes in the daytime I can see the sun in the sky and the moon in the sky. So at nighttime why is only the moon ever in the sky? Is the sun hiding?

Why are overalls called that when they aren't over everything? When Dad and I went out this morning my overalls weren't over my jacket. And they aren't over my shoes.

Why can't I sleep in bed with Mom and Dad since the twins get to be there? It's not fair and there's enough room.

Why did Dad look out the window and say, "Wow, the days are really getting shorter." I didn't even know days could be tall and now they're getting short?

I'm not a baby anymore, so why are my teeth called baby teeth?

Why does Granddad say, "You can't turn back the clock"? I watched Dad turn the clock back yesterday because something called Daylight Savings ended.

How does Santa Claus know everybody's address?

Why are Gram and Alexis called redheads? Their heads aren't red and their hair is orange.

Why does Scrapple get something called a flea treatment every month so he doesn't get fleas? I never have fleas and nobody ever gives me a flea treatment. Should I have one just in case? I don't like fleas. They bite.

What are big boy pants? Dad was looking at his computer just now and said, "Okay, I have to put on my big boy pants and answer Gina's email screed." Doesn't Dad wear man pants?

Why do we have toenails if we never use them for anything?

Why do Mom and Dad say they're going to park the car, but we visit a place called the park which doesn't have any cars?

How did my picture get inside Mom and Dad's phones?

Why did Mom say that hot fudge sauce on salmon was disgusting and she would never eat it? She likes hot fudge sauce and she likes salmon and they're both going in her stomach anyway.

Why did Dad tell Gram she had too much time on her hands when the only thing on her hands were her gloves?

Why do some people have boy babies and some people have girl babies?

Dad just stopped writing and he says it's time for a snack. We're going to have some milk and animal crackers. Bye.

PS Why aren't animal crackers called cookies?

 **A/N** Thank you all for your support for Curious Eliot.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N** Time jump of about six weeks.

 **Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

"Castle, what's going on?"

"Nothing's going on. The usual's going on."

"No. The staring."

"Staring?"

"You've been staring at me for weeks."

"Not true."

"Oh, please. It is."

"I haven't been staring at you for weeks, Beckett, I've been staring at you for years."

"You know, I love having these hair-splitting conversations with you."

 _"_ _Hair splitting? Whose hair split? All our hair looks fine to me."_

"Just saying. Long-time starer here. And since we're married I can do it without fear of, uh, of—"

"Of what?"

"Reprisals?"

I better tell you what was going on. That was Mom and Dad, you probably figured out that part, at home this morning. It's Sunday and it has been cold and very rainy all day so we couldn't go out for a walk. When they were having that talk I was playing on the floor and they were sort of reading the paper on the sofa. Mom was lying down at one end and Dad was at the other end.

"Aha. You admit that you're staring, but you no longer fear reprisals. What would I have done, shot you?"

"Before. But not now. I am the father of your child. Soon to be children, plural."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the soon-to-born children, would it?"

"What? Of course not."

"Too quick, bud, too quick. Now I'm sure that it has everything to do with that. Guilt is all over your face like Oreo crumbs at midnight."

"That's a terrible metaphor, Beckett."

"Not in your case, you midnight Cookie Monster. And you're just trying to deflect. You haven't just been staring, you've been areal staring."

"Areal staring? Is that even a thing?"

"The area being my middle. Have you been staring at me because you're charting my growth, day by day? Because I am so huge? Because I look almost as big now, at the half-way point, as I did right before Eliot was born?"

"Of course not. That's ridiculous."

"Uh, huh. Okay, then here's the big question."

"I thought you already asked that."

"Castle!" Mom had one of her looks, the one that right away makes you stop doing what you're doing if you're not supposed to be doing it. "Who are EB and Obi?"

 _"_ _Dad! Uh-oh, Dad, you might be in trouble. Big, fat trouble."_

Remember when Docky told Dad about the twins and me and Dad's voice got so squeaky? That's what happened next. He tried to hide behind the newspaper but Mom pushed it right down.

"Who?" That was really squeaky.

"Oh, you heard me, Castle. EB and Obi."

"Um."

"Yeah, um. I've heard you on the baby monitor three times talking to Eliot about EB and Obi. And a couple of other times when you didn't know I was in earshot."

 _"_ _Busted, Dad."_

"His, his imaginary playmates." That was even squeakier.

"Eliot's a little young for that, Castle. No, I think EB and Obi are the twins. You made up names for the twins. Which, for the record, is perfectly fine."

"Oh, good. Good, then. Yes, I made up names for the twins and Eliot and I call them EB and Obi. You know, when we're hanging out. Just us guys."

 _"_ _Boy, Dad, I'm only a little kid, but I don't think that sounds like a true story. It sounds like a fib. Mom is gonna notice."_

"And why wouldn't you want to tell me that you have nicknames for the babies? It's very weird, to keep that a secret." I was watching Mom. She was crawling along the sofa towards Dad like a lion. "That's the kind of thing you usually can't wait to tell me. So when you keep something like that a secret, my antennae quiver. And furthermore."

"There's a furthermore?" Squeak!

"And furthermore, what kind of strange names are those? EB and Obi? They aren't clever, they don't make any sense."

 _"_ _Mom! Those are my names for the babies."_

And that's when I started bawling. Mom didn't like my names for the twins and I made them up all by myself. That hurt my feelings. She got off the sofa and came over to me. "Eliot? What's wrong?"

 _"_ _You hate my names! EB and Obi like them. You like them, don't you, guys?"_

 _"_ _Yeah! I know you named EB first but mine's even better. Practice makes perfect, that's what Gram says. Hey, you sound like you need some cheering up, Eliot. You know EB and I went to a concert with Mom and Gram in Carnegie Hall, right?"_

 _"_ _Yeah, I stayed home with Dad."_

 _"_ _Well, here's a joke I heard. How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"_

 _"_ _I dunno. How?"_

 _"_ _Practice!"_

 _"_ _Thanks, Obi, that's good, but I'm too sad to laugh right now. Is EB awake?"_

 _"_ _I'm here. You woke me up when you started yowling. What's wrong with Mom, anyway? Obi and I have been trying to get her to do some stuff lately and it's not working."_

Mom was trying to pick me up but I wouldn't let her. "Oh, sweet pea, what's the matter? Come here."

I wriggled away from her and screamed louder. "Dada! Dada!"

Dad lifted me up to cuddle, and kept saying, "shh, shh, shh," but I was still upset that Mom doesn't like my names, and I kept on crying.

"Castle, he pushed me away. He's never, ever done that. Have you ever seen him like this? Why won't he stop crying?"

"Hang on, hang on. I think I might know." He started walking around while he was holding me and whispered in my ear. "Is this about EB and Obi?"

I nodded.

"Did we upset you?"

I nodded again and mushed my face into his neck so I couldn't see Mom.

"Was it about their names?"

"Yah." I said that into his skin but he could hear me.

"Do you think it's time for us to tell Mom about you and the twins? And have Doc help us, so she would understand?"

"Yah."

Dad went over to Mom and hugged her so I was in the middle like a hug sandwich. "Eliot? You stay with Mom, and give her a kiss. I just have to go in my office for a couple of minutes."

"Castle? I'm a little panicky here. What's the matter? Is Eliot all right?"

"Eliot is absolutely fine, he's great. I'll be right back."

Mom looked worried so I gave her a kiss like Dad told me to do even though I was still mad at her. I knew he was calling Docky and when he came out he was smiling and gave me his secret wink so I was pretty sure it was okay.

Dad was rubbing his hands together. "Brrr, it's so nasty out, I feel it in my bones. I could use some coffee, couldn't you, Beckett?" He kept right on walking to the kitchen without waiting for Mom to answer so the two of us followed him.

"That's it, Castle? No discussion of this bizarre episode?"

"There will be. I'm just going to make coffee so it's ready when Perlmutter gets here, which should be any minute since luckily he was in the neighborhood."

"Docky!"

Dad put the coffee stuff in the machine. "Yup, he's on his way."

Mom reached out and grabbed him by the back of his shirt. She was talking even though her teeth were closed tight so you could tell she was really mad. "You just assured me that our son is fine, but by the way you obviously called a doctor, a doctor who is making a house call? A house call? In the twenty-first century? On a Sunday and it's pouring? No. No, this is not fine."

"Not _a_ doctor, Beckett, Perlmutter. Our friend. I promise. I promise you it's fine. You know how close he and Eliot are and I can explain everything so much better if he's here. In fact, I need him to be here."

 _"_ _Explain?_ You're going to _explain_ something to me?"

I was standing next to Mom and right then Docky knocked on the door. "There he is. Please let go of my shirt and I'll let him in."

 _"_ _Hey, Eliot!"_

 _"_ _Yeah, Obi?"_

 _"_ _Dad was saved by the bell!"_

 _"_ _No he wasn't, smarty pants, he was saved by the knock, right Eliot?"_

 _"_ _We don't have any pants, EB."_

 _"_ _Stop arguing, you guys. Docky's here."_

After Docky shook the rain off his coat and came in, Dad got us all arranged in the living room. That's what he called it, arranged, with Mom, Docky and me on the sofa and Dad in the big chair next to us and their coffee on the coffee table but nobody paid any attention to it.

Mom is usually really nice to Docky but her face was red and she said, "Sidney, are you part of this insanity? My son was screaming his head off for no apparent reason, he wanted nothing to do with me, and he was inconsolable until Castle had some secret conversation with him. And then Castle clearly phoned you and I don't know what the hell is going on."

"Kate—"

"Wait. I don't know whether to be worried or pi—uh, ticked—off or both. But I'm both, so please just tell me what's going on because Castle won't."

"Kate, I'm sorry that this has upset you so much, but I think I can clear things up quickly." Then Docky turned to look at Dad. "Okay, Castle?"

"Please, go ahead."

And then Docky told Mom the exact same thing he had told Dad a while ago when we were at his house. About how he can talk to babies and how I can talk to the twins and tell Docky what they say and about Peter Rabbit and how I named the twins. It was better that Docky told the story because Dad would have taken ages and the whole time Docky was talking Mom's eyes were getting bigger and bigger and going back and forth between him and me. She was holding on to my hand, too.

When he finished it was so quiet it was like night time. Nobody said anything until finally Mom did.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"It was actually Eliot's decision, Kate."

"Excuse me?"

"It's true, Beckett. Everything. When Perlmutter finished telling me what he just did to you, Eliot thought we should wait because you had been upset and surprised when you found out that we were having twins. Eliot was concerned, weren't you? Do you remember what you said then?"

"Spl hab boh rah."

Docky translated for Mom. "Eliot said, 'Maybe you could tell her later when she's more used to having two babies in there'."

Mom bent over as much as she can because her belly is pretty big. It seemed like she stayed that way forever but it wasn't. Finally she sat up and said, "I really, really, really need that cup of coffee. And I need it to be really, really, really hot." So Dad jumped up and went to the kitchen and brought her a really, really, really hot cup of coffee.

Her face was all red before but now it was all white. "I can't believe that you let a toddler rule on the issue. But before I ask any more questions, I want to know what I did that upset Eliot, because obviously it has something to do with all—" she waved her arm around. "With all this. Castle certainly had some idea."

So I told Docky and he told Mom and Dad. Mom gave me a big kiss and put me on her knees. "I'm so, so sorry that I hurt your feelings. I don't hate your names at all and now that I know what they stand for I think they are so good and so imaginative. You remember what imaginative is, don't you?"

"Yah."

"Well, EB and Obi are better nicknames than Dad and I could have come up with."

"Ruh gaghl!"

Mom looked at Docky who looked a little bit nervous. "He says the twins really like their nicknames."

"Good. That's nice. Now, as for the adult males in the room, particularly my husband, I have to say that I feel betrayed. You've been talking with my children, my children, but I haven't had the chance?"

"Well, we haven't been talking to them, Eliot has. He just—"

"Castle." You could tell Mom was mad but she never yelled. She used her ordinary voice which was kind of scary.

"Sorry. I'm sorry."

"You didn't think that I could handle this, this, this. Agggh!" She took such a big breath I could feel it all over me. "You didn't think that I could handle this information? You don't think I have a right to it? As much right as you, Castle? In fact more, since I'm the one who is carrying these babies? It's my body."

Docky started to stand up. "Kate? I think perhaps I should go."

"Absolutely not, Sidney. And really, I'm not angry with you. I understand why you told Castle first. Eliot asked, and God knows Castle's much more open to this kind of what—of inexplicable things in our universe than I am. I do understand that. But my mind isn't completely closed to magic, you know."

"Beckett, I—"

Mom put her hand out like a traffic cop. "Please let me finish. I have Castle to thank for that, really. That incredible as all this is, it's actually credible to me. It wouldn't have been a few years ago, but it is now. And I feel so, I feel so cheated, do you see that? Because you knew and didn't tell me. So I am going to go think about this for a while and I want you to be here when I come back. But Sidney, if this is too uncomfortable for you, or you have somewhere else you need to be, all right."

"No, no, of course. Of course I'll stay."

"Eliot, you come with me, okay?"

"Yah."

So Mom put me down and held my hand and we went to her and Dad's room and we got on the bed. "You are an amazing boy, Eliot. You've been talking to the twins, huh?"

"EB. Obi."

"Right, EB and Obi. Can you tell them apart when you talk to them?"

"Yah."

"Would you ask them something for me?"

"Yah."

"You know, before you were born, when you were inside me, sometimes I thought that you were talking to me and it turns out you were, right?"

"Yah! Mama! Yah!"

"You were trying to tell me things. I wish I had known that. Because lately I've had that same feeling I used to have with you. Are the twins trying to talk to me?

"Yah. Babies."

"It's nothing scary, right? If it were bad or scary you'd tell Docky, wouldn't you?"

"Yah."

"What have they been trying to say to me? Would you ask them and then tell Docky so he can tell me?"

"Ya."

 _"_ _Hi, EB and Obi. Mom figured out you've been trying to tell her stuff. What do you want me to tell her? Not a lot, maybe a couple of things."_

 _"_ _Yeah! I want her to eat more doughnuts. She almost never does except when she takes a bite of Dad's or somebody at work's and I really love doughnuts."_

 _"_ _EB, you always say that. It's not good for us."_

 _"_ _Doesn't mean I can't tell her. Eliot said we could."_

 _"_ _Okay, EB, I'll tell her about the doughnuts. What about you, Obi?"_

 _"_ _I like music. I want her to play more music."_

 _"_ _What kind?"_

 _"_ _Soft kind, not noisy."_

 _"_ _Fine. Doughnuts and music. Bye."_

Mom's face was all soft now and smiling. She rubbed her hand on my cheek. "Were you having a conversation with EB and Obi?"

"Yah."

"In a few minutes we'll go back and see Dad and Docky. Right now I'm going to let Dad stew in his own juice."

 _"Dad has juice stew? That sounds horrible. I wouldn't eat that."_

I must have made a face because Mom laughed. "I bet you don't know what that means! It's that Dad should have to wait a while and think about being sorry for not telling me about you and the babies. May I ask you something else?"

"Yah."

"Did Dad ever ask you to ask the babies anything?"

"No."

"Okay. Good boy. You're my best boy. You know that, right?"

"Yah."

"Want to cuddle a little and have me sing about the furry bunny?"

"Yah! Obi! Mama. Obi!"

"Is Obi all right?"

"Yah."

"I don't know why you're saying Obi's name but I'll ask Docky. You sure everything is okay?"

"Yah."

So Mom sang me my favorite song from when I was a baby, "Soft and Furry Little Bunny." And you know what? I fell asleep! When I woke up she wasn't on the bed with me any more but I could hear her talking in the living room so I slid right off to go find everybody.

I'm glad I did because they looked so happy! Mom and Dad and Docky. Mom was the first one who saw me. "Hey, look who's here! Our little translator. Did you have a nice nap, sweet pea?"

"Yah. Seep Mama."

Then we all sat at the dining room table and I got some apple and Mom told me everything was fine now. She sat next to Dad and I sat next to Docky and Scrapple sat under the table because he is so smart he knows people drop stuff and then he gets to eat it.

"I was telling Dad and Docky how glad I was that they never asked you to ask the babies anything, that you waited until I knew. That made me feel so much better. So now that we're all together maybe we could ask them a couple of things. Do you remember what we were talking about before you fell asleep?"

"Yah."

"That a couple of times lately I felt as though the twins were trying to say something to me, just the way I did a few times before you were born?"

"Yah!"

"And you asked them, didn't you? So now maybe you could tell Docky what they said and he'll tell Dad and me, right?"

"Yah. Docky. Flahh br thth, EB."

Docky put his cup down and had a big smile. "EB loves doughnuts and wants you to eat more of them, not just take a bite of Castle's or of one that someone at the precinct has."

Mom and Dad both laughed. "That's definitely your kid, Castle," Mom said. "What about Obi?"

"Obi laloh dah la gah! Robobbo glsh." When I told Docky that he laughed so hard he put his head all the way back.

"Apparently you have a health nut on the way. Obi told EB that doughnuts are not good for them."

"There's the Beckett DNA," Dad said, and Mom said he was right. I don't know what it means but they were both laughing so it must be good.

"Obi's request is that you, Kate, play more music. Obi loves music."

"Schla buh."

"Oh, specifically soft music, not noisy music."

"I'll tell you what," Mom said and handed me a cookie. "Tonight for dessert I will have a doughnut. A whole entire doughnut, and I will play some soft music, okay?"

"Mama. Obi phuh la."

Docky said, "Eliot wants you to know that Obi loves the bunny song."

Mom came around the table and put both her hands on my face and kissed me on the nose. "That's what you were trying to tell me before. That's so sweet. Thank you."

And then everyone was just happy and Mom and Dad asked Docky to stay for supper and Mom said we were going to have pizza because it's Dad's favorite dinner and this was a special occasion.

"Shh bo frahh."

Docky said, "Eliot wants us all to know that he loves pizza, EB loves pizza and even Obi loves pizza."

"Nn scl."

"And so does Scrapple."

"Happy!"

Dad got up and smooched me on top of the head and said, "You're right. I couldn't have said it better myself. We're very happy."

Later when I went to bed it was still raining and the wind was blowing and making a racket and I thought about Mom's favorite saying that even on terrible days there can be joy. She told me that joy is like happy, only better. And that's what today was. It was terrible and it turned into joy.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Yesterday Mom and Dad found out something that I knew but they didn't. That was fun because usually it's the other way around. They know a lot of stuff.

I was playing with one of my toy cars on the floor in Dad's office while he was working, and Mom came in with _Go, Dog. Go!_ in her hand.

"Eliot must really love this book. I didn't even know we had it. It's adorable."

Dad tilted his head so he could see what she was holding. "Oh, that? I bought it when we went to Barnes & Noble the other day. We haven't had a chance to read it yet."

Mom looked like she didn't believe him. "You haven't? Really?"

"Nope. Why? Oh, did you read it to him last night?"

"No, we were engrossed in _Pantaloon_ , not this. You're sure you haven't read it? Maybe someone else gave him a copy?"

"Go daw!"

"Yeah, go, dog! Beckett, seriously, we haven't so much as cracked it open. I'd never even seen it until we were in the store on Thursday."

"I need to sit down." Mom put her whole hand over her mouth. I was afraid she was going to throw up but she got on a chair. "Castle."

Dad jumped up from his computer and put one hand one her back and one on her head. "Are you all right? Do you feel sick? What's wrong?"

"I'm okay, just a minute." Mom looked at me funny. "Eliot, would you like to read _Go, Dog. Go!_? You could sit next to me and show me your favorite parts." When she talked her voice was shaky like when we drive on that really bumpy dirt road in the country.

"Yah." I climbed up on the chair with her.

Now Dad looked kind of funny. "Beckett, he doesn't have a favorite part. It's brand-new."

"We'll see," she said. Then she opened the book. I patted some pages and shook my head until she came to the one I liked with a whole bunch of dogs jumping around on a giant bed like Mom and Dad's.

"Daw geh up!"

"That's right! 'Now is the time for all dogs to get up.' It's funny, isn't it? Do you have another favorite part?"

"Yah."

"I'll go through some pages and you tell me when to stop."

That sounded like a good idea. I like the page where the dogs are in a Ferris wheel like Dad went on with Alexis. He promised when I'm bigger I can go in it with him. So when Mom got to that I put my hand on it. "Daw go rhow! Rhow rhow."

" 'The dogs are all going around, and around, and around.' Castle?"

Her voice was very rattly.

"Castle? He's reading."

 _"_ _Of course I'm reading, Mom. I love to read."_

 _"_ _Hey, Eliot. That sounds like a good story. Tell us some more. What else happens? We don't have any books."_

 _"_ _He knows that, EB, he used to live in here before we did, remember?"_

 _"_ _You're right, Obi, but wait 'til you guys get out! We have about a million books."_

Dad looked over Mom's shoulder. "Nah, he's just inferring it. From looking at the pictures."

Mom shook her head, hard, a whole lot of times. "No. No. I saw him, and heard him, half an hour ago. He was talking to Scrapple, showing him the book, as if he were telling him the story."

 _"_ _I was, Mom. Scrapple likes this one. He wants to hear it again."_

"Let me find another page." She went to a different place and pointed. "Do you know what that says, Eliot?"

"Bih daw."

"Yes! Big dog." Then she pointed at a word. "What about this one?"

"Day."

"You know what that means?"

 _"_ _Yeah, Mom! I'll show you."_ I pointed out the window at the sky. "Day."

"I thought he was just repeating things because you'd read the book to him a lot."

Dad's face got all pale. "Oh, my God, Beckett, you weren't kidding. He can read. He can read. I can't believe it."

 _"_ _Hey, Eliot. Do you have any stories with twins?"_

 _"_ _No."_

 _"_ _Why not?"_

 _"_ _We just don't."_

 _"_ _Can you ask Mom and Dad? EB and I would like to hear a twin book."_

 _"_ _I guess."_

"But how can that happen? How did he learn?" Mom looked at me like I was a big surprise. "You know how to read."

 _"_ _Just little words, Mom."_ I smiled at her in case she was worried. She looked a little bit worried.

"This puts the mind past boggling, Beckett. I mean, this is one amazing kid we have here." Dad stood up straight and blew his hair off his forehead. "You can read a book, huh, Eliot?"

"Yah! Buh!"

"Beckett, we have to do something."

"Do something?"

"Shouldn't we have him tested, talk to somebody? I don't know. We live in New York. We're surrounded by universities and labs and experts in everything. If I threw a rock out the window I'd probably hit a reading specialist."

 _"_ _Dad. Mom says we should never, ever throw anything out the window. I bet especially a rock."_

"Why don't we ask Sidney?"

"Why don't we ask Perlmutter?"

Mom and Dad said that at exactly the same time. I love it when they do that. It's like they're twins. Maybe that's why Mom is having twins.

"Docky!"

Mom gave me a little squeeze on my knee. "Right. We'll ask Docky about your reading, okay? He doesn't know, does he?"

"No."

"This is good," Dad said. "He can talk with Eliot, point us in the right direction."

 _"_ _What direction? Where are we going?"_

So Mom called Docky and she said she was glad that it was Saturday because he wasn't at work and could come over. When he got here Mom and Dad told him about their discovery. They discovered I could read. That's a new word. It means find out. They found out I could read. After we had lunch I sat down with Docky so I could talk to him about it.

"It's exciting that you can read all by yourself, Eliot. You must like that."

 _"_ _I can't read big words with a lot of letters or hard ones, like breakfast or steam shovel or orchestra or building, only the little ones so far."_

"Well, you can still understand a lot in a book even if you can read only a few words, especially when there are pictures to help, right?"

 _"_ _Yeah."_

"Do you know how you learned to read those words? You must have been surprised you could do that."

 _"_ _Mom and Dad read to me all the time and I see some words a lot like dog and run and ball so I know what they look like and then I see another word that looks sort of the same and I figure out the other word. You know, like bat and cat have the same letters except the first one."_

Docky ruffled my hair. "That's using the old bean!"

 _"_ _Old bean? Oh wait, I bet that's a joke!"_

"Yes it is. It's a silly name for your head. I meant you were very smart to find the letters in bat that are in cat. What else do you think helps you read?"

 _"_ _Dad and I watch_ Sesame Street _a lot. My favorite part is_ Sesame Street _is brought to you by the letter E. That's me, Eliot. They never say my name on TV, but I'm an E like in egg and ear and elephant. Or brought to you by the letter S like shoe. Did you see that I have new shoes?"_

"I did see that. I like that they're bright red."

 _"_ _They're called sneakers. Dad says that's because when you wear this kind of shoes you can sneak up on people and say boo and scare them!"_

"I think he's right. You're not going to scare me, are you?"

 _"_ _No. Maybe just for fun. I don't really want to scare you."_

"Good. If you scare me I might jump up in the air and fall over."

That made me laugh. _"Ha! You're funny, Docky."_

"So are you. Now, I'm going to tell your Mom and Dad what you told me about reading, okay?

 _"_ _Okay, that's good."_

So he told them and said he knew about a couple of kids who can read like me and there was a lady at a place called NYU near us that could talk to them and everything was good. And Mom said, "You know that we're not upset that you can read, right, Eliot? We're proud of you because most boys and girls your age can't do that."

"Yah."

"Maybe you can start reading to me, Eliot, when Mom's at work. That way you have to do the work instead of me." And then he tickled me so I knew he was kidding and I laughed. I love to get tickled.

After a while Docky had to leave so we walked him to the subway and then we went to the playground and the rest of the day was nice.

At bedtime Mom read me _Go, Dog. Go!_ so I got to know the whole story. And then she sang me a song, "I Could Write a Book." She said it was her Mom's favorite. So that means it's an old song but to me it's a new one. I loved it. When she finished I said, "ghn! ghn!" She understood me even without Docky to help, and she sang it again, and I went to sleep.

 **A/N** There are rare but well-documented cases of toddlers who have learned to read on their own.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Christmas is the best day, but by the time Gram and Granddad and Alexis went home yesterday we were all very tired. So this morning we were just hanging around the living room in our PJs. I had a bunch of new toys to play with and Mom and Dad were lolling on the sofa. That's what Mom calls it, lolling, kind of like lying down but not really.

She was holding her mug of coffee on top of her belly, which the twins probably like because it's warm. "Well, we survived Christmas, Castle. I wasn't entirely sure there for a while. Thought we were goners."

Dad started chuckling. "You mean when Scrapple managed to grab the standing rib roast and dragged it into the laundry room?"

 _"That was so funny, Dad! It was so big but he almost got it all the way behind the washing machine."_

"Yes, that, but even worse was my father opening the box of obscene lingerie you gave me because the tags on the packages got mixed up. And what was that doing under the tree, anyway?"

Dad scrunched up his face. "Naughty Santa?"

 _"Santa isn't naughty, Dad, he's nice. Like me. I wasn't naughty, that's why he brought me presents."_

"Well, tell Santa that should have been p-r-i-v-a-t-e."

 _"What was that word you spelled, Mom?"_

Dad looked over at the fireplace. "Next year we'll have two more stockings to hang up, isn't that great?"

Mom put her mug on the table but she kept rubbing her hands around and around on her belly. I remember when she did that when I was inside there. It always felt so good. It made me sleepy. "Only 364 days 'til Christmas. I bet you've already ordered those stockings."

"Of course I haven't." Dad yawned. And then he yawned some more. "I have to wait until we know the kids' names."

"EB. Obi."

Mom looked down where I was playing. "Those are wonderful nicknames, sweet pea, but they're going to get real names, too, after they're born, just like you did."

 _"Yeah, but I didn't have a great nickname like they do. I don't know why they can't stay EB and Obi. Those sound good to me."_

"I love that you got them these twins books for Christmas, Beckett." Dad picked up some up that were on the floor by the end of the sofa. "Eliot, maybe you could help Mom read to the babies right now. Do you want to choose one? We've got, let's see, _More Blueberries_ , _Twins in the Park_ , _Twins Take a Bath_ and _Twins Go to Bed_."

Why do they get presents when they're not even born yet? Plus all of those books are just about twins, not a regular kid like me. Well, if we have to read a book to them at least I was going to sit on Mom's lap. I stood up and went over to her and held my arms out.

"Mama up?"

"You're a big boy, I don't need to pick you up to help you on the sofa. I know you can climb up here all by yourself. Come on."

"Up."

"Eliot, sweetie, it's hard for me to pick you up right now because of the twins, okay? Why don't you just hop up here and we'll get a book."

So I did, but then something happened that I didn't like. Mom sat up straight so we could read together and I moved over to get on her lap. And you know what? I couldn't really fit.

"Oops."

That's what Mom said. "Oops."

"The babies are taking up so much room now that there's not much place for you to sit. You want to perch on my knee?"

"No."

Dad started to laugh, and I didn't like that, either. "Oh, Beckett, it's the disappearing lap! That's what I'm going to call you from now on, TDL. The Disappearing Lap."

Mom swatted his arm. "Shut up, Castle."

 _"It's not nice to say shut up, Mom."_

"And another thing."

"What?"

"I do believe that the green-eyed monster has arrived."

 _"Monster? Where? There's a monster here? I don't see it. I don't want a monster in our house! Make it go away."_

"Oh, my God, is that what this is? I think you're right." Mom hugged me tight sideways and kissed the top of my head. "He's jealous. I feel terrible. Maybe we've been asking him to talk to-you-know-who for us too often. I never thought of it because he's so loving. And, uh, it's such an amazing thing to be able to do. Have we gone overboard? Do you think? That's what made him jealous?"

 _"What's jealous mean? What are you talking about, Mom?"_

"I can't believe that I'm saying this but, yeah, maybe we should scale back a little on that. I'm not sure if those words—'scale back'—have ever even passed my lips before."

"First time for everything, Castle."

Mom gave me another hug. "Hey, Eliot. Look at me, you little dreamboat."

I looked at her. "Bo?"

"Yeah, bo. Dreamboat. I called you a big boy a minute ago, didn't I?"

"Yah."

"You are a big boy. My big boy. But you know what else?"

"No?"

"Even when you're a bigger boy, the biggest boy, a ginormous boy, bigger than Dad?"

 _"I'm gonna be bigger than Dad?"_

I must have looked amazed when I looked at him because he and Mom laughed. He poked me in the tummy and tickled me. "Yes, Eliot, much as it pains me to say so, you are going to be bigger than I am some day."

Mom was really hugging me tight then. "Even when you're that big, sweet pea, you will always be my baby."

"No baby!"

"Yes, baby." She kissed my cheek. "You will always be my baby. My first baby. My number-one baby. Even when you are all grown up and have babies you will be my baby."

 _"I think you're mixed up, Mom. Boys don't have babies. Girls have babies."_

Mom reached over to Dad and pointed to the twin books. "Dad is going to put those books away because EB and Obi can read those after they're born. Why don't we read a book just for you? Not for the twins, just for you."

"Yah! My buh."

"Your book. Right. Why don't you go get one of yours, maybe one that Santa brought you, and we'll do that together, okay?"

I slid down off the sofa and went to the Christmas tree and found a book I think I will like because it has a boy in PJs like me floating in the sky with a lot of balloons. I took it to Mom and put it on her knee and she held on to my hand tight while I got up next to her.

"That looks like a fun one, Eliot. It's called _The Wonderful Things You Will Be_. Do you want to open it, and find the beginning?"

Mom had to help me a little bit with the pages but we got it and she started.

" 'When I look at you', " and she looked at me, "'And you look at me'," and she put her hand under my chin to make sure I could look up at her, " 'I wonder what wonderful things you will be.' That's exactly right. I think about that all the time, Eliot, because you're going to be so many wonderful things. So many."

 _"Thanks, Mom. Dad? Are you crying?"_

 **A/N** Many thanks to everyone who is reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, or some combination of those.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N** Thanks to reviewer BaltimoreJaxs for this request: Can we get a chapter from the puppy's point of view, would like to hear how he got the roast.

 **Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Hi, I'm Scrapple. I have to tell you, I really thought I had it. That would have been the best Christmas present ever for me! Castle left the roasting pan on the kitchen island when he went to answer the door, and must not have realized that I could jump up on the stool and then on to the island. It was a little daunting, but the incentive was huge. That standing rib roast. Wow. I bet I could have smelled it all the way from Chicago. Seriously, who could blame me for trying to get it?

Getting it out of the hot pan was going to be tricky, but I decided that if I put one of my front paws on the meat to hold it steady and then got my teeth into it I could lift it up without tipping the pan or burning myself. It worked. Once I really had it, I just hung my head over the edge of the island and opened my mouth. The roast dropped to the floor and nobody heard a thing because they were all making so much noise in the living room.

Yup, I really thought that I could stuff that huge, delicious chunk of meat behind the washing machine and stuff myself with it before they managed to get it away from me. (Did you notice that? Stuff and stuff? Castle's not the only one in this family who likes wordplay.) But oh, no, there had to be a rat. Alexis. That red-headed, two-legged rat Alexis ratted me out. She yelled, "Scrapple has the roast!" and jumped up from her chair and chased me. I had a good grip, but not good enough. She's stronger than I am and she has opposable thumbs. I don't have any thumbs at all.

That main event of Christmas dinner was almost as big as I am. I weigh eight pounds and I bet it weighed six. At least Eliot helped me. He made sure that he pushed some bits of the meat off his highchair so that I could eat them. We're not best friends for nothing, you know.

In case you've forgotten, I'm a dachshund, which is German for badger dog. My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents in Germany would go barreling down holes in the ground to hunt badgers. Not me, thank you very much. I'm not getting into it with a badger, which is related to a weasel, and you know what weasels are like. Please! They're nasty little critters. You couldn't pay me to go down there. Not even if you bribed me with an entire roast beef. You couldn't even badger me into going down a badger hole! I made that joke to Eliot. He didn't know the other meaning of badger, but after I told him he laughed so hard he fell down on his bottom. Eliot has a fantastic sense of humor. He tells very good jokes and he makes a lot of them up himself. He could be a stand-up comedian, especially now that he's old enough to stand up. When I stand up my body is still only two inches off the ground, so it's hard for people to see me. Eliot says, "Hey, Scrapple, keep your ear to the ground!" That kid cracks me up.

I know that I'm a lucky dog. Lots of the animals I met at the shelter had been there a long time, but I got adopted after only a week. I even already knew the great smells in the neighborhood because the shelter is right around the corner from the loft. Some people make dogs sleep in the kitchen, which wouldn't really be a hardship for me since I could find plenty to snack on after hours. Castle doesn't always remember to put things away or out of reach (like the roast beef, heh heh!). But it's a lot nicer to sleep on the rug in Eliot's room, next to the crib. If I could get through the slats I would, but they make me a little nervous. Also, it's good to be on the floor in the event of marauders. I would have easy access to their ankles, and if you think I latched on to that roast beef well, you should see what I could do to people if they were crazy enough to break in here. I have excellent hearing, and I'd know they'd gotten in before they took more than a step. I'd bark like a mad dog, too. I may not be much bigger than a bag of flour, but I sound like a Rottweiler. I'd scare the **** out of them. I'm pretty sure you know what I mean, but I don't want to use that word in case the newest reader in the family sees this.

The other day Beckett was reading a book that Santa gave to Eliot and she said that he was going to be so many wonderful things. That's the only regret I have about being a dog, that I won't live long enough to see Eliot grow up. I'm glad that he doesn't know that. But then I was thinking I shouldn't be sad because he already is a lot of wonderful things. He's kind. He's generous. He's funny. He tells the twins things to help them get ready for the world. He throws the ball for me. He rides in the bike trailer with me and likes that we wear matching helmets. We tell each other stories. He pats me. He sneaks food to me. He lets me lick his face. He shares his toys with me. We take naps together. I don't snitch on him, like when he !#hcl %rd (that's our secret code) and he doesn't snitch on me, like the time I g=#*4 lm7 (ditto). When we were in the car the other day I heard an old Harry Nilsson song on the radio, "Best Friend," and it reminded me of him, especially the line "He's a warm-hearted person who'll love me to the end." And I know he will, right to the end. That's my boy. That's Eliot.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N** Three anonymous guests—I suspect it was just one coward, three times—have left vicious, filthy, inexcusable attacks on a new story, "Testament," by Hunsdon, who is an excellent longtime writer of "Castle" fan fiction. Hunsdon could have deleted those so-called reviews because they're unsigned, but didn't, which was both brave and democratic. I ask you please to show your support by leaving a comment there. If you don't like the story, that's fine, but no writer should be subjected to such vitriol.

 **Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Mom takes a lot of naps now. She says carrying twins around her inside all the time makes her tired. Today she said, "I'm having trouble seeing my feet."

 _"_ _I see them, Mom. They look fine. Just your regular feet."_

I think she means that her stomach is in the way. Oh, you know what I noticed about her stomach? Her belly button sticks out! I can't put a Cheerio in there any more the way I used to. That was a fun game.

The good part for me is that it means I get to lie down with her when she takes a nap, which is very cozy, plus if I feel like it I can talk to the babies. Today I was wanted to go to sleep but I couldn't because EB and Obi were carrying on. That's an expression that Gram likes. "Oh, my Lord, that man was carrying on!" It took me a while to figure out that she meant the man was very excited about something. I have a lot to explain to the twins, like carry on, which also means keep doing whatever you're doing and also is the kind of suitcase Dad takes when he has to go away for a few days for his books. It means it's small enough that he can carry it on to the airplane. And another thing. Yesterday Mom had the radio on especially for Obi who likes that kind of music and the woman who was talking about it at the end said, "That was Mozart's Symphony number 38 in D major with Herbert von Carry On and the Berlin Philharmonic." Isn't that funny? There is also a person with the last name Carry On! That must be confusing.

Anyway, I had a hard time going to sleep this afternoon because EB and Obi were carrying on.

 _"_ _Hey, Eliot? EB and I have a question."_

 _"_ _Uh-oh. When you say you have a question you really mean you have about a hundred questions and I can't even count that high."_

 _"_ _Okay, can I ask you anyway?_ "

 _"_ _Sure. Go ahead."_

 _"_ _What is this stuff on our heads?"_

 _"_ _Stuff?"_

 _"_ _Yeah, stuff coming out of our heads. It didn't used to be there and now it is."_

 _"_ _Oh, that's hair! You have hair on your heads now."_

 _"_ _Hi, Eliot, this is EB. Yeah, we both have it, but I think Obi might have more. Even though Obi's smaller than I am."_

 _"_ _What's hair for?"_

 _"_ _I dunno, Obi. I think it's just for decoration."_

 _"_ _What's that mean?"_

 _"_ _I think that means it help makes you look nice, EB. Right, Eliot?"_

 _"_ _Yeah. You two probably have good hair. That's what people say a lot. 'Everyone in your family has such great hair!' "_

 _"_ _Can I ask you a question?"_

 _"_ _I knew you would, EB. Okay."_

 _"_ _How long do we have to stay in here?"_

 _"_ _A while. Mom says you're going to get born in the spring and it's winter now. It's warm in spring and it's cold now."_

 _"_ _Not in here. It's warm in here. Why can't we leave now?"_

 _"_ _Mom says you have to get bigger before you can come out."_

 _"_ _We're already bigger. EB is huge. Wait 'til you see!"_

 _"_ _She told me that you're not done yet. She said 'They're still cooking.' Isn't that funny?"_

 _"_ _We're cooking! What? No! Is somebody going to eat us? That's not funny."_

 _"_ _It's just an expression, EB. Nobody is going to eat you. One time when I was really little Gram said, 'Oh, I could just eat you right up' and I was so scared I started to scream and then I found out it was just an expression that she loved me. There are a lot of expressions that sound like they mean one thing but they really mean something else. You'll find out when you're born."_

 _"_ _How are we supposed to decide which it is?"_

 _"_ _You can ask me, Obi. I know a lot of stuff, but not as much as Mom and Dad. Listen, I want to take a nap now. You can ask me more questions another time. Wait, I forgot. I brought Peter Rabbit and I'm putting him on Mom's belly for you. He might slide off though."_

 _"_ _He feels soft like my hair."_

 _"I know. Oh_ _, before I go to sleep, that reminds me. A rabbit looks a whole lot like an animal called a hare, which sounds like hair on your head. See what I mean? There are a lot of confusing things out here. Okay, I have to go. Bye, you guys."_

Boy, I can see why the babies make Mom tired. They do it to me, too, and all I'm doing is talking to them sometimes, not carrying them around all day.

After Mom and I got up from our nap it was time for me to get my diaper changed and then it was time for all of us to have a snack. Mom drinks milk now for a snack, because the twins need it to grow, so she and Dad and I have milk and cookies in the afternoon. Scrapple wants ours but he is not allowed to have chocolate because it makes dogs very sick, but he does get to eat a biscuit. I ate one while Dad wasn't looking the other day and it was horrible. No wonder Scrapple looks at my cookie that way.

While Dad was getting our snack ready Mom went to the big closet in the hall and came back with a shopping bag which she left by the table. While we were all having milk and cookies (except Scrapple), Mom made a big announcement. That's exactly what she said. "I have a big announcement."

Dad wasn't paying his whole attention because he dunked his cookie too long and it fell into the bottom of his glass and he was trying to get it out.

"Castle!"

"Hmm?"

"I said, 'I have a big announcement to make'."

Dad scrunched up his face. "Well, I know you're not announcing that you're pregnant because you told me that ages ago."

Mom laughed, but she also swatted him with her paper napkin. "No. My big announcement is that it's time to start potty training Eliot. Today is a good day to begin. If he can stand up while I change his diaper, lift up one leg and then the other, then he can learn to use the potty. Preferably before we get two more characters in the house who will be using a hundred diapers a day."

"We have to buy a potty first."

"I'm way ahead of you, bud." She picked up the shopping bag and put it on the table. "In anticipation of this great event, I ordered a potty as well as two books." She reached in the bag and pulled them out. " _My Big Boy Potty_ and _Everyone Poops,_ which we will doubtless spend many happy hours reading." Then she took out the box that was in the bag. "Eliot, this is your very own potty, which we'll put in the bathroom. In fact, I bought two, so we can have one in our bathroom and another one in yours."

"Gfdthgmg."

"Excuse me, Castle? Would you like to swallow before speaking?"

"Um, I said, good thinking. You know, getting two potties. It'll be useful a couple of years from now, too, when the twins will need them."

"Yeah, well right now I'm just focussing on getting one to use it." Mom pushed my hair off my forehead. "What do you say, my big boy? Are you ready to start learning to go potty like Dad?"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

She laughed when I said that, but Dad didn't. "I think the ball's in your court, Castle."

"That and more, Beckett." He wiggled his eyebrows at her, but I don't know why.

Mom laughed again, but I don't know why about that, either.

And I don't know about this potty thing. Why do I have to learn? And why do I have to go potty like Dad and not like Mom, anyway? Are they different? I'd ask Scrapple but I don't think dogs ever wear diapers. Besides, they pee on the ground. Maybe I'll ask Docky. He's good at explaining things.

 **A/N** Thank you so much for all your support. I'm very grateful for every bit of it.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Dad and I were in the bathroom yesterday morning after Mom left for work. He had his elbows sticking out from his hips so I knew he was sort of at the end of his rope. That's an expression. He didn't have any rope. It means he really wanted me to do something, which was to go. Go pee.

"Okay, Eliot, here's the deal. I know this is only our third day of potty training, but if you sit on your potty until I count to a hundred, you can come with me to pick up Mom's Valentine's present."

"No."

"What if I tell you that Mom's present is at Harry Winston, a store I happen to know you love? Makes me proud to have a son with such incredible and discerning taste."

"No."

"What if I add ice cream to the deal?"

"No."

"What if it's ice cream at Serendipity?"

"Yah!"

"I swear you've been talking to your grandfather. You're such a little negotiator already. You gonna be a lawyer?"

"No."

"Is no your favorite word?"

"Yah."

I could see he wasn't at the end of his rope any more because he was trying not to laugh. "Oh boy, a prodigy in the 'no' department, too. You weren't supposed to be doing that for another six months."

 _"_ _Hey, Scrapple, what's a prodigy?"_

 _"_ _Dunno."_

 _"_ _That's okay. Thanks for telling me to keep telling Dad no a bunch of times. It really worked."_

 _"_ _You're welcome. We dachshunds are crafty."_

Dad put me on the potty and started counting to a hundred. It felt like it was taking a million years.

 _"_ _Scrapple, do you know how count to a hundred? Is Dad putting in some extra numbers?"_

 _"_ _I can't count that high, but I'm pretty sure half isn't a number and he keeps saying it. Five, five and a half, six, six and a half. Like that."_

 _"_ _Well, I really want that ice cream, so I'll stay on this potty. It'll be worth it."_

Dad finally said, "A hundred!" He lifted me off the potty and looked in. "Hmm, that's what I thought. Nothing. We'll try again later. Now, if you had gone, this is what we'd have done, okay? Watch me. I would have emptied your potty here into the toilet and then we would have flushed it. See? When you press down the handle, poof, like magic, the pee goes away."

"Way?"

"Yup, it all goes away."

"Ice!"

"Ice cream, right. Well, a deal's a deal, even if you didn't go in your potty. Serendipity it is, but not until after lunch and your nap."

Dad had to write for a while, so I played with blocks. I made a tower and Scrapple knocked it down and then I did it over and he did it over and I did it over and he did it over. I laughed every time.

 _"_ _Hey, Scrapple?"_

 _"_ _Yeah?"_

 _"_ _Did you see that cool thing Dad did with the toilet? It's called flush. It makes the water go round and round. Have you ever flushed it?"_

 _"_ _Nope, can't reach. I like the sound though. It's gurgly. Reminds me of that fountain we get to play in in the park."_

 _"_ _I asked Docky why the fountain isn't on and he said it's because it's winter and it's too cold, that the water would freeze. I wonder why it doesn't freeze in the toilet?"_

 _"_ _Probably because it's indoors. It's nice and warm in here."_

 _"_ _Wouldn't it be funny if somebody put the toilet in the freezer?"_

 _"_ _You have great ideas, Eliot. You could be a dachshund."_

 _"_ _That would be fun. I could be a dachshund for a while and you could be a boy."_

So after lunch and my nap Dad and I went to the jewelry store, Harry Winston, and waited in that special room. When the man came out with Mom's present he said hello and shook Dad's hand.

"You remember my son, Eliot, Mister Forrest? He helped me pick out earrings for my wife Christmas before last?"

The man still had that spooky laugh and was all nervous. "Uh, yes, the little lad has grown a lot. I do remember him very clearly."

"Yah!"

"Well, now, Mr. Castle. As we discussed, you wanted a ruby-and-diamond bracelet that resembled the cho—the necklace—that you bought at that time, and I think you'll find that we've managed almost a perfect match." He put it on a tray and Dad picked it up and turned it over and held it so the light made it all sparkly. I clapped!

"Eliot obviously approves, and so do I. It's beautiful. Thank you, Mister Forrest. I'm sure that my wife will be over the moon."

 _"_ _Mom's going to the moon? Why? Isn't that far away? I don't want her to do that."_

"I'll just get this put in a box for you. Would you like us to wrap it?"

"No, that's not necessary, thanks. Just the box in a small bag."

"Ice?"

Mister Forrest jumped a little when I said that and Dad laughed. "He's not referring to diamonds. He meant ice cream, which I promised him after we leave." Mister Forrest laughed but it sounded like he didn't mean it.

We took Mom's present and went to Serendipity which wasn't far away. We were glad because there's a lot of snow around and it gets stuck in the stroller wheels. Dad ordered us a Can't Say No Sundae, which is ice cream and pie and hot fudge sauce and a banana and whipped cream. He got most of it but I got ice cream and some banana and he took my picture and texted it to Mom. One bite later Dad's phone rang and there was Mom on face time.

"Hello, boys. Are you where I think you are?"

"Yah!"

"Castle?"

"Yes?"

"You must be celebrating a special occasion? Did something happen that I don't know about?"

"Ice!"

"Right. Yes. Um, I promised Eliot if he stayed on the potty while I counted to a hundred—which I did ultra slowly, Beckett, ultra, ultra slowly—we could go to Serendipity."

"Did you go potty, Eliot? Wow! That's amazing! No, wait. Wait, wait. Castle. I see your face. I also note that you made this extravagant promise if he stayed on the potty, not if he actually, you know, _used_ it."

Dad didn't say anything, but he looked at me and whispered "uh-oh."

"Guh, Mom." I showed her my spoon.

"I'm sure it's good, sweet pea. But Castle? We will discuss this reward system of yours later. When I get home."

"Oh. Oh, okay. We have to go. Bye."

Then Dad looked at me and said, "I think Mom thinks I was giving you too big a treat for just sitting on the potty. Well, we had fun eating this, didn't we? And when we get home you can try the potty again."

"No."

Dad kind of groaned and shoved his hand in his hair. "Oh boy, I think I may have created a monster."

 _"_ _There's no monster here, Dad. It's like before when you said there was a green-eyed monster but there wasn't a monster. I think you're just kidding me. Or maybe it's an expression."_

When we got home Dad put me on the potty again but it was boring so I didn't do anything.

After that he decided that we needed to find a good hiding place for Mom's present because the next day was Valentine's Day and it would be a surprise. But just then Mom came in the door so Dad put it under the sofa which is a bad hiding place. She was taking off her coat and her boots and kissing us hello and then she said she wanted to talk to Dad so they went in the kitchen. That's when I got the idea of where to hide the present. So I did. She will never guess!

After we had dinner it was time for me to go to bed. Mom said, "Let's try you on the potty again."

"Up?"

"Upstairs? Yes, we'll try the potty upstairs in your bathroom." But I didn't need to go so I didn't. Mom said that was okay and we would try again tomorrow. I had my bath and a story and a song and after Mom and Dad left I looked through my crib.

 _"_ _Hey, Scrapple. Did you see where I hid Mom's present?"_

 _"_ _Yes. That was good thinking, Eliot. Really smart."_

 _"_ _Thanks. I meant to tell EB and Obi but I forgot. Night."_

 _"_ _Night."_

When I woke up Mom came in to get me and gave me a big kiss. "Good morning, my funny Valentine." And I was so happy because she thinks I'm funny and I love to be funny. I gave her a kiss right back. After she changed my diaper we went downstairs where I thought Dad would be in the kitchen but he wasn't. I could hear some banging and crashing around so I didn't know what was going on.

"Where's Dad, Eliot? He always has our breakfast ready doesn't he? He sounds like he's in our bedroom. Let's see."

He was! He was on the floor on his belly looking under the bed and Mom said, "Castle? What on earth are you doing?"

He pushed himself backwards so he could get out and then stand up. He was very messy and his hair was sticking out. He also looked very pale. "I can't find it." He sounded like he strangling.

"Are you all right? You don't look well."

"I can't find it. Oh, my God. It's just not possible."

"What?"

"Your Valentine's present. You came home earlier than I expected last night and I shoved it under the sofa. I swear I did. And it's not there. It's not anywhere."

Mom used her hand to make Dad's hair neater. "Don't worry. I'm sure it'll turn up."

"But I am worried. I didn't put through the insurance yet."

"My Valentine's present requires insurance? Castle!"

"Mom."

"Just a minute, sweet pea."

"Oh, come on, Beckett. You know by now I'm an extravagant guy. You're the love of my life. I'm not giving you flowers and chocolate for Valentine's Day. Besides, this year you deserve an over-the-top present."

"If you're calling it over-the-top, I'm not sure I can imagine. I don't need anything like that."

I patted her on the leg. "Mom. Mom."

She put her hand on my head. "Eliot, sweetie, please, just a minute."

"You may not need it, but you deserve it. You have a toddler. You're pregnant with twins. You deserve something special. If I can ever find it."

"DAH!"

"What, Eliot?"

"Cm. Dah." I pulled on his pants leg. "DAH!" I started to walk to the bathroom and then I turned around. "Dah! Mom!"

"What's going _on_?"

" _What's_ going on?"

See? They said the same thing at the same time. They do it a lot. So I turned back around and walked to their bathroom and finally they followed me. When we got there I went to my potty and tried to pull up the lid but it was hard.

"Do you want to go potty, Eliot?" Dad was so excited!

"No." I tried to get the lid up again but I couldn't so I pointed. "Up."

Dad looked confused but he pulled the lid up on my potty and I got Mom's present out. "Mom!"

"Ewww!"

"Ewww!"

They said the same thing at the same time again but why were they mad? "Ewww" is not nice. I hid the present for them! It was a good surprise hiding place. Under the sofa where Dad put it wasn't. So I sat right down and cried. I pointed at the box. "Hi. Elyut hi."

And then Dad swooped down like a big bird and picked me right up and kissed me all over. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Yes! Hide! We were looking for a hiding place and you found one. Good boy."

He was still holding on to me and he said to Mom, "He must have taken it from under the sofa while we were talking in the kitchen last night. I had told him we needed a good hiding place."

"His potty is a good hiding place?"

"Well, Beckett, it's clean as can be. It's not like he's used it yet. So I think it was a great hiding place."

Then he and Mom laughed so hard I thought they'd never stop, so I laughed, too. After a while Mom said, "May I open this now? Maybe somewhere more romantic than pottyside?" Dad had put me down so she held my hand and we went to the kitchen. "You did a good job, Eliot. You really used your imagination. Next time not the potty, though, okay?"

"Kay."

Dad made us pancakes in the shape of hearts and Mom opened her present and said, "Ohhhhh, Castle!" And then she got up and kissed him so hard I thought he might fall over but he didn't.

It was a Happy Valentine's Day. I'll try to remember about the potty.

 **A/N** A couple of readers complained that Eliot is too young for toilet training, and that Beckett is therefore not well versed in that area of childhood development. Eliot is a year and a half old, just shy of 18 months. Some toddlers are thoroughly trained by then or even younger, many are much older. There are no rules; every child is different. I potty trained a toddler when he was 16 months old and he has grown up to be strong, happy, friendly, successful, and un-neurotic. I don't pretend to know everything about child development, but neither should anyone else! Thank you.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Two days ago it snowed a lot and that night Mom said she wanted to go to the Hamptons in the morning. "I know it's last-minute, but the weather has cleared, it's Presidents' Day weekend and it'll be our last chance until summer. We shouldn't go any closer to my due date and after the twins arrive we won't be able to go for a bit."

"You don't have to talk me into it," Dad said.

Scrapple and I were excited because we've never been in the country in the snow. When we got there the man had plowed our driveway so we could go right into the garage. We don't have to take very much stuff when we go because we keep things there, but Mom brought my potty.

We decided to walk into town to get some exercise but on the way there all of a sudden Scrapple stopped and screamed and held up his paw. It was bleeding! Dad picked him up and saw a big piece of glass sticking into his foot so we turned around to go home, get the car and take Scrapple to the vet as fast as we could. He was crying and crying and I was afraid he would die and not come back. Mom and I waited in the room while Dad went in with Scrapple. I could hear him even though the door was closed and I my hands were over my ears. I decided to tell the twins what was happening because they probably were confused about the noise.

 _"_ _EB and Obi, we're in the animal hospital."_

 _"_ _Is that why we hear a lot of barking and things? Why are you there?"_

 _"_ _Scrapple must be hurt or sick, EB, that's the only animal we have. What happened, Eliot?"_

 _"_ _He got a huge cut in his foot and he's crying, it's horrible. But Dad is in there with him and the doctor so he isn't by himself and scared. Mom says he'll be okay but he doesn't sound okay. I'll talk to you later."_

Finally Dad came out, carrying Scrapple who had a big bandage on his paw but at least he wasn't crying any more. Dad sat down with Mom and me so we could pat Scrapple. "The vet says he'll be good as new in a few days. She got the glass out and cleaned his cut and gave him a shot so he doesn't get an infection. We have to put special cream on his paw for a few days and when he goes out we have this boot to put over the bandage to protect it, see? So no walks for him for a little while, except to go out to pee and poop. He'll just be hopping around for a few days like a rabbit, and then he'll be fine. You don't need to worry, okay?"

"Kay."

 _"_ _Did Dad just say we're getting a rabbit?"_

 _"_ _No, just that Scrapple will be hopping around like one for a while because of his bandage."_

 _"_ _Why can't we get a rabbit? I like that idea, Obi. We could name it Peter."_

 _"_ _We're not allowed, you guys. When Dad wanted us to adopt a cat from the shelter Mom said, 'Not unless you want to sleep on the couch for the rest of your natural life.' And he said, 'Okay. No cat, then.' I don't understand why he said that because he takes naps on the sofa all the time, he loves it. But Mom definitely said no more animals. 'This is a one-pet household, Castle'."_

We were all really hungry by then so we went straight home for lunch. I was so tired after all the bad excitement that afterwards I fell asleep with Scrapple next to me. I have to watch out for him. When I woke up Mom and Dad had a surprise which was that we were going to build a snowman in the yard. Scrapple had to watch from the window but Dad said he was the supervisor, which is like the boss. We made a giant snow ball for the bottom part, and a medium one for the middle, and then a smaller one for his head with Mom's Yankee hat on top. Dad and I found two sticks for his arms and Mom put oven mitts on the ends for mittens. We gave him a tangerine for his nose and kiwi pieces for his eyes and made a smile out of raisins. Remember when I said Gram told me she could eat me right up? We really could do that to our snowman! Especially the raisins. I love raisins.

Then I had an idea. "Mom! Dah! So daw!" I said it twice and pointed to Scrapple, who was barking at us from inside.

"What? Oh!" Dad gave me a high five, even though we we wearing mittens. "A snowdog! You want to make a snowdog that looks like Scrapple? A snow dachshund?"

"Yah!"

So that was how our snowman got a pet snow dachshund. I bet he's the only one in the world who does. Mom took an extra leash from the closet and we put it on the snowman's stick arm and around the snow dachshund's neck so it looked like they were taking a walk even if they never left the yard in real life. When I looked in the window, Scrapple was wagging his tail. I think he liked the snow dachshund.

We were about to go inside when I had another idea. I was standing next to Mom and I picked up a big piece of snow and held it on her stomach where her coat doesn't button all the way round because the twins are taking up so much room. She jumped right up in the air when I did that!

"Eliot! Yikes!"

"EB so. Obi so."

"Oh, you want EB and Obi to feel the snow? Do you think they'll like that? Are you going to tell them about it?"

"Yah." I held some more snow on her stomach.

 _"_ _Eliot, what are you doing? That's freezing! That's worse than the sonogram stuff."_

 _"_ _It's snow, EB. It's only here in the winter time. In the summer it's rain. It's magic that it changes. Except in the summer Dad likes to eat something called a sno-cone but it's not really snow. And it's a funny color."_

 _"_ _It's so cold! What do you do with it, anyway?"_

 _"_ _Play. We made a man out of it and a dog out of it like Scrapple and we can go in a sled. When you're out of there and have clothes you'll love it, I promise."_

 _"_ _You better be telling us the truth. There are two of us, you know."_

 _"_ _I know, Obi, but I'm your big brother. I am much bigger than you. Plus I don't tell lies. You're not supposed to tell lies."_

 _"_ _Can we go inside now? Please don't put any more snow on Mom."_

 _"_ _Okay, bye."_

And then I reached up to hold Mom's hand and we went inside, just like the twins asked. I was kind of cold, too, to tell the truth, which I do.

She put me on the potty but I didn't need to go and besides it's boring to sit there. "We've been trying the potty for only a week a half, but you are a very smart boy, so I'm sure you understand why we're doing this. I'm not going to get mad if you don't go, but I have faith in you. Do you know that that means?"

"Yah."

"We're going to figure out some good ways to make this fun."

"Kay."

Mom tells the truth, too, but I didn't know how it could ever be fun. But a little while later I figured out one all by myself. I knew Dad would love it. When he was getting me ready for bed he was changing my diaper before he put on my PJs and guess what? I grabbed the diaper and started running around with it. I was naked and it was so much fun! Dad was trying to chase me and then I went under the table and when he got down there I scooted out the other side and waved at Scrapple who started barking and Dad was hollering. But I got to his and Mom's bathroom and I dropped the diaper in the toilet and when Dad came through the door I went flush! Bye, diaper!

"Eliot!"

"Way!"

Dad's face was very red. "Did you just flush your diaper down the toilet?"

 _"_ _Yes, just like you showed me you would do with the potty. My diaper had pee so I made it go away."_

Mom came in behind him. "What?"

I pointed to the flush handle. "Way! Bye!"

Dad smacked himself on the head. "Oh, God, Beckett. When we first got the potty I showed him how I would empty it into the toilet and then flush it away."

"Way! Fuh!"

"You thought that was fun?"

"Yah, fuh Dah!"

"I think that one may be on me, Castle." Mom was holding her back with her hand and staring in to the toilet. "I told him we would find ways to make potty training fun."

"Fuh!"

Mom laughed. "Well, Mister Bare-Bottom, I guess it was fun. But no more diapers down the toilet. That's just for pee."

"Pee bye."

"Think we need to call the plumber, Castle?"

"I think perhaps we do."

Mom and Dad got me ready for bed and said good night and I was almost asleep when I heard Scrapple.

 _"Hey, Eliot. I need to talk to you."_

 _"Now? Aren't you sleepy? Your paw need to rest, Dad said. Rest is like sleep."_

 _"I can sleep in a minute. I want to talk to you about potty training."_

 _"Why?"_

 _"I want to tell you a story, but first I want to tell you about underpants."_

 _"Dogs don't have underpants."_

 _"That's right, but I do know about them. You'll like wearing underpants. They're much better than those clunky diapers. Diapers sort of get in the way. Besides, the twins will wear diapers and you can show them your underpants and they'll be very envious. They'll wish they had them because you're their big brother."_

 _"Huh. Well, what about the story you want to tell me?_

 _"Here it is. I was very upset and sad when I had to go live in the shelter. My heart was broken. I thought it would be always be broken. And then you and your Mom and Dad came to see me. I wanted you to adopt me but you left and I thought that was the end. I got my hopes up, and then they were down. But it turned out that the people at the shelter just had to make sure you were nice and would take good care of me. And you came back and adopted me and got me toys and a bed and everything and a forever home. So I have you for the rest of my life. You know what else?"_

 _"What?"_

 _"If you could really try with potty training it would make your mom and dad happy. I can help you. I feel like if I can help you with it that will help your mom and dad. That will be my way to say thank you to them for adopting me. I can remind you when it's probably time for you to pee, okay? And then you can tell your parents that you need to go. What do you think?"_

 _"Okay, I'll try. Can I ask you a question?"_

 _"Sure. You ask me questions all the time."_

 _"Do you know anything else about underpants?"_

 _"Yeah."_

 _"Like what?"_

 _"They come in lots of colors so they're not blah like diapers. And they have really great pictures on them, like dinosaurs and cars."_

 _"What about dachshunds? Do they have any with dachshunds? That's what I want."_

 _"I bet they do. I bet your Dad knows a guy."_

 _"Okay. Maybe underpants will be good. Night, Scrapple."_

 _"Night, Eliot."_


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

"Wow, this is some afternoon, isn't it?" Dad said when he was undoing Scrapple's leash by the front door. "I thought we were going to skate right around the corner and we don't even have ice skates on. And we're all soaked, too."

He wasn't kidding, it was terrible outside. It started to rain while we were on our walk and then the rain got colder and turned into sleet and then the sidewalk got so slippery and the sleet stung our faces.

"Oops, I didn't get the towel in time. Look at our dog, rolling around on the rug. Do you think that's what we should do? Dry off like that?"

"Yah!"

Dad grabbed me around my middle and swung me up in the air before I could get on the floor with Scrapple. "No rug rolling for us, my man. How about we get in the tub and warm up, what do you think?"

"Yah. Tub."

"We'll make bubble hats out of the shampoo. And mustaches."

Dad ran us a bath and we were having so much fun splashing around that we didn't even hear Mom come in.

"Hi, boys. Is there room for one more in there?"

Dad looked very surprised and smiled at Mom. "Technically it would be three more, Beckett."

"Castle!" Mom leaned over the side of the tub and kissed me on the nose. "Nice mustache, sweet pea."

Dad blinked his eyes fast a lot of times. "No kiss for me?"

"Not sure you deserve it after that comment, but yes," and she kissed Dad on the lips instead of the nose.

"It's nice to have you back so early. It's only what, five thirty?"

"Yup. I'll tell you all about my trip home after you get your wrinkled bodies out of there. Gonna make some tea to warm myself up. I'll see you in the kitchen."

Dad got us both out of the bath and wrapped us up in towels and then we got on some dry clothes. Scrapple was already in the kitchen with Mom. He doesn't like to get too near the tub in case we decide to put him in there. After we all sat down Dad said, "So tell us about your trip home from work. Was it exciting?"

Mom sipped her tea and made a face which I could see over the top of her mug. "Not exciting, irritating."

"What happened?"

"The weather is appalling, as you clearly experienced, and the battery on my car conked out, fortunately while it was in the precinct garage. But since it was sleeting and rush hour there were no taxis, no Ubers, nothing, so I decided to take the subway."

"Whoa, whoa, Beckett. Why didn't you call? We would have come and gotten you."

"No, Castle, I didn't want you on the road in the sleet, especially with Eliot." She drank some more of her tea. "The subway was the best choice."

"And packed at this hour."

"And packed at this hour, yes. I was standing in front of a young woman, maybe mid twenties, who was sitting there absolutely radiating hostility and sullenness. Her thousand-dollar Canada Goose parka was unzipped so you could see her T shirt, which said, in enormous letters, PARENTAL CONTROL. Very in-your-face, you know? Even though her face was virtually in my belly. Anyway, there she was, young and presumably healthy, entitlement clearly zipping through her veins, reading a book called _How to Get What You Want_."

Dad snorted and Mom looked hard at him. "I know. Anyway, I couldn't believe that she didn't get up for me."

"Maybe she didn't notice?"

"You're kidding, right? I'm impossible to overlook, Castle. My stomach is the size of New Jersey, for God's sake. I was nearly poking her in the nose with it.

I could tell Dad was trying not to laugh. "Too bad you didn't, actually. Poke her in the nose." I think he decided he should let Mom finish because he closed his mouth hard.

"So, to continue. There was a woman on my left who had to have been eighty, and this little snot didn't get up for her, either. After a minute, the man next to her offered me his seat. When I took it she gave me this totally withering glance and went back to her book."

"I sense something coming."

"You sense right. She was moving slightly away from me, as if I had a communicable disease. But she had a shopping bag on the floor between her feet, and she decided right then to start man spreading—okay, okay, she's a woman, but same thing. She started spreading her knees apart until she was all but shoving me sideways. Instead of shoving her back, which is what I wanted to do, I turned and stared at her. Really, really stared."

 _"_ _Mom, you stared at her? One of your fireball ones?"_

"Oh, I wish I had a video of this." Dad looked very excited, and he got his phone out. "I bet someone already tweeted. I'm gonna check."

"Castle!" Mom reached across and grabbed his phone. "Attention, please. Eventually she looked at me, and I said, 'You know, you can save yourself a lot of time and trouble by not finishing that book.' And she said 'What?' All this contempt on her face, right? And I said, 'It looks as though you already got what you want, namely a seat on the subway at rush hour, despite the fact that there are elderly people and at least one woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy standing around you.' She looked like she was about to spit at me and then she said, like ice, 'F blank blank blank you.' And I gave her my very best smile and rubbed my hand on my belly and whispered, 'Somebody already did. It was _fantastic_ '."

Dad's eyes were wide, wide open and he was bouncing on the kitchen stool. "You really said that? Beckett, you are a goddess. What happened then?"

"She got up in a rage and stomped to the door and got off at the next station, which I can pretty much guarantee wasn't hers, given the location."

I don't know what they were talking about, but they both laughed for a long time.

They finished their tea and Mom said, "Could we move to the living room for a few minutes? I want to put my feet up and my back is killing me. And I would like a little cuddle time with you, Eliot."

Mom and I got on the sofa and she combed my hair with her fingers. When Dad bought in some cheese and crackers she said, "You know, sometimes it feels like the twins are having a slugfest in there. I guess it's because they're feeling crowded, but they're driving me crazy. I wish they'd knock it off."

 _"_ _Hey, EB and Obi, did you hear Mom? What are you doing in there, having a wrestling match?"_

 _"_ _EB takes up too much room, Eliot. Always shoving me out of the way."_

 _"_ _Am not."_

 _"_ _Are too."_

 _"_ _Well I need more space than you, you're a pipsqueak, Obi."_

 _"_ _I'm not. You're just a fatty."_

 _"_ _You guys! Stop it. I mean it. Right now. I'm not talking to you again if you don't. It's almost night time so just go to sleep."_

They sounded cranky but they said they would. I put my hand on Mom's stomach. "Babies ni."

"Ni?"

"Babies shh."

"Oh, the babies are going night-night! Good. Thank you, Eliot. Did you ask them to calm down? You're a sweetheart."

Mom and Dad started talking about police things so I got down to play with my blocks.

"I'm sorry you're so uncomfortable. Is there anything I can do?"

"I'm so huge and ungainly and exhausted. I swear I'm considering nonstop s-e-x to bring on labor."

"Appealing as that sounds, the nonstop s-e-x—and it's unbelievably appealing—you need to keep them in there a bit longer."

"I know. Just seems like it's taking forever."

I don't know what they were saying then, either, but whenever they spell something in front of me I know it's a word I'm not supposed to know. Something for grown ups. I hope the twins get born soon, though, because Mom's belly looks like it's going to explode.

 **A/N** Thanks to Bookish0278 for suggesting that Beckett complain about the twins battling for space and have Eliot tell them to quit it.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N** This chapter is the first in a two-part arc.

 **Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Day before yesterday was a huge, amazing day for a lot of reasons so I'll start at the beginning. I love parades and it was Saint Patrick's Day which has a big parade, and Dad promised me we could go. He got me a green fuzzy hat that says TOP OF THE MORNING on it which I don't understand because I didn't know morning had a top and wonder if it has a bottom. Not the kind you sit on! That's a joke. But I still don't know if it does. Have a bottom.

I wanted Mom to come to the parade because there's a lot of music and Obi would like that, even though some of it's loud with all those drums, but she said she couldn't.

"I wish I could, sweet pea, but today is my last day at work until after the twins are born. Starting tomorrow I'll be home with you and Dad for a long time, until way after the twins come. We're going to have fun, aren't we? But that's why I can't take the day off. You and Dad can tell me all about it later. Especially the bagpipes!" Then she made a funny sound like imitating a bagpipe and it was pretty good, even though she couldn't fool me.

The parade goes up a long street, Fifth Avenue, which is next to Central Park. I had never been to such a big parade before. It doesn't have those cool balloons like the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, which I will go to when I am three "and not a moment sooner," Mom says, but it's still great, especially because it has so many bagpipes. I have loved bagpipes ever since I saw a DVD of something called The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. It doesn't mean tattoo like people put on their arms or even their necks which is creepy, it means kind of a concert by people in the Army. The DVD shows all these bagpipers playing music and marching in front of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Scotland is a country that's pretty close to Ireland which is where Saint Patrick came from and where they also have bagpipes. Sorry if you already knew this but I think it's interesting. I wonder if everyone in Scotland and Ireland knows how to play the bagpipes? Maybe I can have lessons, even though I live in the United States. Maybe someone from the parade can teach me.

Dad and I watched the parade for a while, and then we went to Central Park where there was a ton of snow from a storm the day before. My baby sitter Sarah who takes care of me on the days that Dad is at the precinct met us there with my sled and then she left to visit her Mom in Queens. The park has big hills that Dad and I wanted to zoom down fast.

The next part of what happened has to do with Mom. It was at the same time as Dad and me being at the parade and sledding, so you probably wonder how I can tell you about it. Some was what EB and Obi told me, some was what Mom told me, and some of it I heard her telling Gram when they thought I was asleep but I wasn't and some of it I heard Dad telling Alexis when they thought I was asleep. You can find out some exciting things that way. Oh, and Scrapple told me stuff, too. No one ever thinks a dog is listening, but he's really good at that. So here's Mom's part of the day. I tried to remember every word even though I don't know what all of them mean.

I was trying to clear my desk off and get everything settled since I won't be back for six months. I hated leaving before this horrendous double homicide that Espo and Ryan have been working on is closed, but I had no choice. I was exhausted, and Lotte was already furious at me for staying this long into my pregnancy. The boys were out chasing some tenuous lead when Perlmutter called.

"I've been back over the reports, over and over. Something was niggling at the edge of my brain all night, and I finally figured out what it was. I've found something significant, but I'd rather not discuss it on the phone."

"No problem, Perlmutter, I can be there in fifteen."

"No. Absolutely not. No. The streets are still impossible from the storm, and the Saint Patrick's Day revelers are throwing up green beer on the sidewalk. I'll come to you."

"Aw, Sidney, you're a saint yourself."

"The century's first Jewish saint, I like it. I'll be there shortly."

I was starving. I've been ravenous for the last week, so I decided to run—okay, waddle—to the coffee shop across the street and get a sandwich, and something for Perlmutter since he was nice enough to be coming to the precinct for me. When I got back to the station there was the sainted doctor, right at the front door, and we got in the elevator together. Just the two of us. Or as Castle would undoubtedly have said, "Just the four of you."

You know, I've felt that ancient elevator lurch a thousand times, but never like that. It felt as if every one of my vital organs had been dislodged. I think my heart was where a kidney should have been and my liver was up near my lungs. I also slammed into Sidney, and he hung on to me, I still don't know how. And the noise! It sounded like a ten-car pile-up. And then it stopped. The elevator just stopped. We rang the alarm bell, for all the good that did. The intercom wasn't working, but at least our cells were. After a couple of hour-long minutes, LT told us that because of the parade and because a lot of side streets were still clogged with snow, it was going to be a while before a repairman could get there.

"At least we won't starve while we're waiting," I said. "I have two sandwiches in here, grilled cheese with tomato, or chicken salad, and two bottles of water." It's not as though I had a presentiment, but I do think I knew, I absolutely knew, right then, what was going to happen. We weren't just stuck, we were going to be stuck for hours. And just as I was unwrapping my sandwich I felt something I'd felt once before, except that time it was at home, in the bathroom, and not in an elevator that was probably older than Perlmutter and me together, and about as sanitary as your average subway car.

"Oh, my God."

"What? Find something in your sandwich of mysterious origin?"

"I think the twins are on their way. Look at the puddle by my feet."

For some insane reason, because insane was pretty much how I was feeling, when I looked at Sidney all I could think of was that old Procol Harum song "A Whiter Shade of Pale." That's what he was. Ashen.

"Your water just broke. How far along are you? Thirty-four weeks?"

"Thirty-five."

"What the hell are you doing here, Kate? You should already be on maternity leave."

"Yeah, well, it was supposed to start about four hours from now."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, forgive me. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"Sidney? I know what it means if my water breaks before I've had any contractions, and I haven't. It means I'm going into labor any minute, doesn't it? And you and I are in a filthy airless cube. And I'm having twins. Oh, god, oh, God, oh, God. I have to call Castle."

I did call him, but he and Eliot were at that freaking parade or in the park and it went straight to voicemail. It's funny that I can remember everything else, but I can't remember what I said in that message. Because I was more terrified than I had been in my entire life. He must have saved it, though.

"Kate. Kate, listen to me. I won't lie, yes, you will probably go into labor very soon. I hope that we'll get out of here before then, but we may not. I haven't been in a delivery room since my daughter Abby was born, but that's something you don't ever forget, and I did an OB/GYN rotation, even if it was a long time ago. Now, it's good that I always have latex gloves in the pockets of everything I own, because I might need them. Okay? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. Yes. Yep." It's incredible how soothing his voice was. Except that right then I think I screamed loud enough to deafen him. It was one hell of a contraction, that first one.

Hi. It's me, Eliot. Dad says I have to go to bed now. I'll tell you the rest tomorrow. It's amaze balls.

TBC


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N** This is the second of a two-part arc.

 **Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

I woke up and it was very dark. I was pretty sure it was still nighttime.

 _"_ _Scrapple? Are you awake?"_

 _"_ _I am now. What's up?"_

 _"_ _Me! Get it? I'm up. That's my joke."_

 _"_ _Good one, Eliot, but go back to sleep."_

 _"_ _I can't. I don't like it that Mom's not here."_

 _"_ _She'll be home soon."_

 _"_ _I know, but I don't like it. I want to go sleep with Dad."_

 _"_ _Why don't you just call him? Just yell his name and he'll hear you on the monitor."_

 _"_ _Thanks, Scrapple!"_

I had to call Dad about five times but then I heard him running up the stairs and he crashed into my room and Scrapple had to jump out of the way before Dad stepped on him. Dad's hair was sticking out all over the place and he picked me up out of the crib and hugged me.

"Eliot, Eliot, Eliot! Are you okay?"

"Hi, Dah."

"Are you okay?"

"Mom way?"

"Mom's away, but she'll be home soon. Are you worried? She's fine."

"Seep you."

"You want to sleep with me?"

"Yah. Seep you down."

"Okay. Okay, my guy. You really scared me for a minute. I have to catch my breath. We'll go downstairs and you can sleep in the big bed with me."

"An daw."

"And Scrapple? Okay. That's our secret, though, so don't tell Mom! It'll just be us three guys in the bed."

 _"_ _Thanks, Eliot."_

 _"_ _You're welcome."_

In the morning after we took Scrapple out and had breakfast it was still too early to go see Mom. So while Dad was sending some emails and calling people I decided I better tell the rest of the story by Mom. I heard Docky tell her and Dad that I have "a truly exceptional memory," which I think means I remember a lot. That's good right now since I have to think of exactly everything I heard Mom tell people about it so I can tell you. Here goes!

Sidney was such a trouper. I know he's a doctor, and he kicked into professional mode, but still. I mean, he hadn't really had to deal with a live patient, not to mention three of them, in years. He called the hospital and Lotte and got everything rolling like making sure there was an ambulance, with incubators, downstairs asap. He said, "I don't care if you have to pick people up bodily from the street, get that bus here now." It was pretty obvious, even to me, that I wasn't going to have a lot of lucid moments in the immediate future so we tried to discuss things right away, between contractions. And while I was in the middle of maybe the third and fourth ones he took my phone and called my dad and Martha and Alexis to tell them what was going on.

After that I said, "Remember when I was trapped standing on that bomb for hours? Castle insisted I wasn't standing on one and and kept trying to cheer me up, keep my mind off it. I remember that I said to him. 'If I have to be stuck not standing on a bomb, then I'm glad I'm stuck with you.' Kind of how I feel right now, Sidney. Hate to say it, but God I'm glad it's you in here and not Ryan and Espo."

"Thank you, Kate. But there's no bomb here."

"Yeah, except me. I feel like I'm a time bomb."

I'll spare you the grizzliest details, but Sidney helped me get my shoes and pants off, and took his own shirt off and hung it on the railing in case he needed it for the babies. He put our coats lining-side up on the floor of the elevator for me and used some of the bottled water to rinse off his hands before pulling on his gloves. When my phone finally rang, it was Castle on FaceTime. I'd say it was a private conversation, except that Sidney was standing about three feet away, diplomatically trying not to listen. But Castle got Martha to meet him and take Eliot home and stay there with him and the dog. And then he raced to the precinct, climbed up the stairs and waited in my office. He stayed on the line the whole time. Didn't even wince, I think, when I was screaming terrible things at him. He kept apologizing for not being there with me.

"Maybe I should have brought Eliot so he could talk to the babies."

"I think not, Castle," I said somehow, through my teeth.

"Right," he said.

At some point the repairmen arrived and we could hear some clanking below us. Sidney told Castle to ask them please "to keep the jostling to a minimum." I'd have laughed if I weren't already close to another kind of hysteria. No, that's not really true. Time was going too fast, because I didn't want to deliver in the elevator, but not going fast enough. And Sidney kept me calmer than I'd have thought possible. He must have been terrified, too. The responsibility of it. The worry.

Finally he told me one more push, just one more push, I'd done this before, I was great.

"Bull! I did this in a hospital! In a clean hospital! And there was only one kid to push out." But he was right, he was right. One more push and there was the first one.

Sidney smiled the most beatific smile, that's the only way I can describe it, which is good for a newly-minted saint, and put the baby on my chest for just a moment. "Another boy, Kate. You have another wonderful son. Castle! Can you hear us? It's a boy!" And then he cleaned him off as well as he could and wrapped him up in his shirt and had about a second to recover before the second one arrived.

The smile for that might have been even bigger than the first. "This must be Obi!" He blurted it right out. "You're the smaller one. She's a girl, Kate! A beautiful little girl. Castle! One of each! They're perfect."

 _"_ _Hi, Mom. Hi, Docky. Wow, that was something. We're out! Can you put me over there with EB?"_

"Yes, I'm wrapping you up with EB. And we're all going to get someplace much nicer very soon."

I thought nothing could surprise me at that point. I mean, I had just given birth to my son and daughter in an elevator in which my family and colleagues and the most disgusting criminals ride. But it did surprise me. Maybe it shouldn't have, but it did. "Sidney? Perlmutter? Did you just hear her talk?"

He looked up from the two-baby bundle and laughed. "Yes! Yes, I did. Totally unexpected." And he told me what she said and I burst into tears and then I laughed, too.

All the time this was going on I was aware of a background of noise, the workmen underneath us trying to free the elevator. Castle was talking nonstop and I was trying to hold the phone so that he could see the three of us.

"Ask Perlmutter to take a picture."

"I'll do it in a second, Castle, I'm busy with Kate."

Then Castle asked us to hang on and I could hear that he was talking to someone else. He came back with the news that the repairmen had fixed the problem and were going to bring the elevator down as slowly as possible to the ground floor. Everyone had been cleared out, and three doctors and some EMTs were waiting with a gurney for me and portable incubators for the twins.

I've never been happier to see a door open. Castle ran in ahead of everyone so he could see us. We babbled a lot, that's all I'll say. After I was put on a gurney and wheeled out onto the sidewalk, I saw twelve squad cars lined up, twelve from the Twelfth, six in front of the ambulance and six behind. We peeled out about a minute later. "Greatest police escort ever," Castle said.

Hi. It's me, Eliot. That's the end of Mom's part. I told you it was amaze balls! I can tell the rest myself because I went to the hospital with Gram and Granddad.

The twins were five hours old when we got there. They had gotten washed off so they wouldn't have germs. I didn't know they were going to be so little! Mom's belly had been so big I thought they'd be bigger. My brother, the one I used to call EB but now he has a real name which I'll tell you in a minute, was in a bassinet. He was wrapped up tight and had a blue cap that said IT'S MY BIRTHDAY. My sister, you know, Obi, was too tiny so she has to spend a few days in something called an incubator to keep her extra warm. She had a pink birthday cap and was down the hall in a special place called the NICU.

After I hugged and kissed Mom I got to sit in the bed next to her and hold my brother in my lap.

 _"_ _Hi. I'm your brother. I'm Eliot. You had a big adventure getting born. Everybody is talking about it."_

 _"_ _Didn't you get born that way?"_

 _"_ _Nope."_

 _"_ _How's Obi?"_

 _"_ _Good. She just has to get a little bigger before she can be in a bassinet like you.'_

 _"_ _Told you she was a pipsqueak. I'm tired. Night."_

So he went back into the bassinet and Mom and Dad told me that babies do that. Sleep all the time. Gram and Granddad and Alexis came in to see Mom and meet the babies, but they left pretty soon because they didn't want to make Mom tired. I got to stay, though, and then Mom and Dad started talking about what to really call EB and Obi.

"Castle, I will strangle the first person who suggests that we name them Patrick and Patricia."

"Right behind you, Beckett."

Dad was right next to her, not behind her, but that's an expression. It means that he's on her side which is funny because he really was on her side! Oh, and Mom was kidding. She wouldn't really strangle anyone.

"I know we have a list for boys and girls, but I'd like to toss it, at least the girls' one."

"Yeah?" Dad's eyebrows went up. "You have something in mind?"

"Abigail. Abby for short. In honor of Perlmutter. Of his daughter. I don't think we'd have made it without him." Mom looked serious all of a sudden. "He's told me a lot about her. Do you think he would mind? Would that be too painful? Should we ask him?"

"Let's ask him. He's nothing if not forthright."

"Can we do it right now? Is he here?"

"Yes, he went and got clean clothes but he came back and he's in the waiting room. But before I go out, I want to run a boy's name by you."

"Should I be worried?"

"No! But we weren't completely happy with the list and I have an idea. Otis."

"Otis?"

"It's a distinguished name. I love the sound of it, Otis. A lot of vowels, like Eliot. And It's not too long, which is good since his last name is Beckett-Castle."

"Give me a minute here, Castle, so my befogged brain can work on this. I actually love that name. You don't hear it often, but I know you. I know you didn't pluck this from the ether." She squinted her eyes at him. She is better at this than Dad and after a while his mouth moved a little bit. "Aha! Your lip just twitched."

"It may have."

"I got it! The elevator. The Otis elevator company? Are you kidding?"

"I'm not kidding. Elisha Otis is the genius who invented the safety feature that keeps elevators from falling if the cable—"

Mom put her hand up like a traffic cop. "Don't say it. Please don't finish that sentence."

"I won't. But admit it, it's a great name. And this has been a completely surreal day."

"Castle? _You_ think it was surreal? You have no idea."

"Not like you, I know, but some. Don't forget I was on FaceTime."

Mom put her hand around Dad's chin. "I'm not going to regret this am I?"

"No. And it's kind of a cool way to commemorate his arrival into the world, don't you think?"

"Never dreamed I'd say this, but yes, I do. Otis. We have an Otis. What do you say, Eliot? Do you like that name?"

"Yah! Oty. Guh."

"How about I go get Perlmutter now?" Mom said yes and Dad went and found Docky. As soon as he came in the room I slid off the bed and hugged him around the knee.

 _"_ _Thanks for helping the twins get born, Docky."_

"You're welcome, Eliot. I'm glad I could help. I was lucky to be there."

"Sidney? Castle and I want to ask you something. About our daughter, formerly known as Obi."

Docky laughed. "What about her?"

"We would very much like to name her Abigail, Abby, in your honor. And in memory of your daughter. But if you think, um, if that's. If it's too painful. We don't want to be presumptuous."

I never saw Docky's face like that. He looked sad and happy at the same time. He didn't say anything for a long time, but he looked out the window for a minute and he swallowed so hard I could see it in his neck. He blinked a couple of times. And then he turned around and he cleared his throat. "I was just visiting her in the NICU. I think it's a perfect name for her. Perfect. And I, uh, I so look forward to watching Abby grow up. I am in your debt."

It looked like he gave a little bow. Noboby said anything for a while, until Dad did.

"No, Sidney, it's we who are in yours."


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Mom and Otis have been home for a while. He mostly sleeps, eats and cries. Especially eats. All his food is from Mom, it's milk like I used to get, and he eats all the time. Around a million times a day. I know he is a baby but he kind of hogs Mom. I think he cries because he misses Abby. They were together inside Mom and now we're all here at home and she's still in the hospital. But we have been to see her every day and Mom does kangaroo care with her, like she is a mother kangaroo and Abby is her joey, and she holds her against her chest and puts her shirt over both of them. Too bad Mom doesn't have a pouch like a kangaroo so she could hop around. I told Docky it would be fun to see her hop but he said that wouldn't be good for a tiny baby.

We were very excited today because Abby weighs enough to come home and we were going to get her in the afternoon. Everything was ready for her so Mom and Dad were relaxing at breakfast time.

"I'll do it through the mayor's office," Dad said. He was waving his mug around. "No one will have to know it's me."

"Everyone will know it's you, Castle. An anonymous benefactor decides to buy a new elevator for the Twelfth precinct? Like that's gonna fly."

 _"_ _Elevators don't fly, Mom, airplanes do. And birds. Oh, and ghosts. And angels. And flies. That's weird, right? A fly can fly. Oh, and bats. And pterosaurs but they aren't around any more. They're in my dinosaur book. I guess a lot of things fly, but not elevators."_

"When you go back to work you'll have to ride in that thing again every day. And don't say that lightning never strikes twice, because I have statistics that prove the contrary."

"I don't think I'll go into labor again in the elevator."

"I meant you could get stuck. For hours. Days, even."

"Castle, I can't have you paying for a new elevator, it's just, uh, not. Not."

"Not what?"

"Not, you know, right."

"You're saying it would embarrass you?"

Mom wrinkled up her nose. "Kind of. I mean, it's a wonderful, generous offer, but our precinct shouldn't get things that others don't."

"You think I should take away that espresso maker, then?"

"No!" Mom looked scared when he said that!

"So where on your embarrassment scale does the nickname for the elevator fall?"

"What?"

"I said, where on your embarrassment scale does the nickname for the elevator fall?"

Boy, Mom looked so pale now, even more than when Dad asked about the coffee maker. She put down her spoon so fast that it slid off the table. It still had yogurt on it and Scrapple ran to get it and she didn't even notice.

"The elevator has a nickname?"

"Yup. A lot of things at the precinct get nicknames, you know that."

"Are you going to tell me what it is?"

"Certainly." Dad smacked his lips. Loud. He was eating a bagel. "Although now that I think about it, it's more a tribute than a nickname. Yeah, a tribute. Maybe they'll put up a little sign, or a plaque."

"Castle, please. Enough torture. Just tell me."

Dad licked some butter off his finger. "The Delivery Room."

Both of Mom's went right up to her face. "Oh, my God. I am never going in there again. Ever."

"So you agree I should pay for a new one."

"No, Castle. I mean henceforth I will take the stairs."

"Henceforth? You actually said henceforth?"

"A serious situation calls for a serious word."

"What if you're escorting a perp? You gonna take them up the stairs?"

"I'm the Captain now. I don't have to escort perps, as you so delicately put it. You know what? This is just too mortifying even to contemplate. Could we change the subject?"

"Sure."

Right then I heard the baby monitor squeak which meant that Otis was awake and about to cry.

"Right on schedule," Mom said while she stood up. "Feeding time at the zoo."

"Zoo? Go zoo?"

"That's another expression, sweet pea. It's not really the zoo here. It means, let's see, it means that it's time to feed Otis but it's kind of busy around here, like it as with so many animals at the zoo. Now we have you and Otis and Abby and Scrapple and Dad and me there are a lot of us."

Mom left to go feed Otis and a little bit later while I was eating my toast her phone rang. "Docky!"

Dad looked over at the phone. "That's Docky calling?"

"Yah."

"Your Mom made his ringtone the theme from _ER_? That's pretty funny. Think I should answer?"

"Yah!"

"Morning, Perlmutter. It's Castle. Kate's nursing Otis. Anything I can do for you?"

"Docky!"

"Hold on, someone is anxious to speak to you. I'll put you on FaceTime." Dad put me on his lap so we could both see Docky and he could see us.

"Hi, Eliot."

"Hi."

"Look what I have on. It just got sent to me. Can you see it?"

"Yah, co!"

"A very, very handsome new coat that's made out of cashmere, which is very, very soft wool. That was a huge surprise! Did you help pick it out?"

"Yah."

"I thought so. You have excellent taste, like both your parents. I like the color, too."

"Blue."

"Right. You knew that was my favorite, didn't you?"

"Yah."

"Castle? Really, you shouldn't have done this. It's entirely unnecessary."

"That's not what Beckett says. In fact, she said, 'I ruined Sidney's coat. It was for a great reason, two great reasons, but oh my God, I gave birth on his coat. We have to get him a new one right now.' I hope you're not thinking of returning it, because she'll just send it to you again."

"Of course I won't. This is the best-looking coat I've ever had. Thank you. Thank all of you. How did you know the size?"

"I didn't. Beckett did. Sort of, uh. Well. She said that when she was having the worst of the contractions and trying to focus on something, there wasn't much to look at, so she used the tags on the lining of your coat."

Docky laughed out loud. "You sure Kate doesn't mind my knowing that?"

"Seriously, Sidney?" There was Mom carrying Otis! She had sneaked into the kitchen and was standing right behind us. She laughed, too. "Considering what went on in that elevator, you really think I mind your knowing _that_? It was about the least, um, revealing moment of the whole experience."

"All right. As I just told your husband and older son, this is the best coat I've ever had, far superior to its immediate predecessor, and I thank you. You shouldn't have done, it but I'm delighted that you did."

"You're very welcome."

"Docky! Abby om."

"I heard that she is. It's a big day for all of you, Abby coming home. I'm going to go now, okay, Eliot? Next time you see me I'll be wearing my new coat."

"Bye."

I decided I needed to talk to Otis. Mom was holding him on her chest.

 _"_ _Morning, Otis. How are you?"_

 _"_ _Hi."_

 _"_ _That's all? Just hi?"_

 _"_ _I'm sleepy. I just ate."_

 _"_ _Oh, brother. That's a joke, get it? Because we're brothers."_

He didn't answer. I think he was already asleep. Oh, brother. How come no one ever says oh, sister? Maybe I should start doing that. It could be a new expression.

Mom sat down next to Dad. "Castle? One more thing. There was a pool on the twins, had to have been. And it must have been huge, right?"

"Oh, yeah. You want to know who won?"

"Not really. I just wondered if this was covered: giving birth in the elevator. Anybody who put money on that would have cleaned up."

Dad looked like he was about to say something but he didn't. He just looked at Mom.

"Beat you to it, Castle. That elevator really, really, really needed cleaning up. Afterwards."

Maybe I'll ask Docky what that meant because Mom and Dad laughed so hard it almost woke up Otis.

Finally it was time to go get Abby. When we drove home there were three car seats in the back. That was pretty amazing! I sat in between the twins so I could keep an eye on them. That was my job. Even though it's important, I hope that's not always my job or I'll never have time to play.

Everybody in the family was tired tonight. The babies were in their bassinets in Mom and Dad's room and I was about to fall asleep when I said night to Scrapple and he didn't answer. I looked down at the floor and he wasn't there. I waited and waited and he didn't come. I was all by myself and I hated it and I couldn't help it that I cried. I heard Dad running up the stairs.

I was standing up in the crib and he put his hand on my forehead. "Eliot? What's wrong?"

I pointed down where Scrapple always sleeps. "Daw, no daw."

"No dog?" Dad looked surprised. "Where's Scrapple? Why don't you come with me and we'll go find him. You ride piggy back, okay?"

We saw Mom in the kitchen. "What's going on, sweetie?"

"No daw."

"We're looking for Scrapple. I think Eliot was very lonely, weren't you?"

"Yah."

"Oh. Oh. Oh, my," Mom said. "I bet I know where he is. Follow me."

We walked into Mom and Dad's room and there was Scrapple curled up between the bassinets. I went over and patted his ear and he opened his eyes.

 _"Scrapple? Why are you down here?"_

 _"I'm guarding the twins."_

 _"In case of bad guys?"_

 _"Yes. You can't be too careful."_

 _"Mom is a cop."_

 _"I know."_

 _"Well if any bad guys come she'll get rid of them. I'm all by myself upstairs. Who's going to guard me?"_

 _"You're right, Eliot. Let's go."_

And Scrapple ran to the bottom of the stairs. Dad put him under one arm and me under the other and carried us up, and Mom came right behind. Dad put me in my crib and Scrapple stretched out next to it. "Night, boys," Mom and Dad said at the exact same time, and then they each gave me a kiss.

"Order is restored in the universe," I heard Dad say when he walked down the hall.

I put my hand out to Scrapple and he licked it.

 _"_ _Night, Scrapple. Thanks for coming back."_

 _"_ _Night, Eliot. This is where I belong."_

 **A/N** I am eternally grateful to everyone who takes the time to read this story. I was somewhat taken aback, though, by the virulent reaction of some readers to the name Otis. It's fine if you don't like it, but after a 35,000-word story that has been leading up to this childbirth chapter absolutely the only thing that a number of people commented on—some very rudely—was a baby's name? Geez. I'll tell my son what you think of it, but I guarantee I won't change it! And to those who are sure that the name will result in Otis Beckett-Castle being beat up in the schoolyard? Forget it! There is no way this kid will be anything but kick-ass.


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer:** The only part of _Castle_ that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

You know what? I'm almost potty trained now. It took a while but Mom and Dad said they're very proud of me. Scrapple was right about underpants. They're much better than diapers and not bunchy. I only wear diapers at night now and since I'm asleep I don't mind about them being bunchy.

We have a routine at home now, that's what it's called. One part of our routine is that I get to have a book and a nap every afternoon with Mom, just the two of us, while Abby and Otis are asleep and not pestering anyone. Another part is that Sarah the babysitter comes every day from breakfast to lunch until the twins are a little older because Mom still has to spend a lot of time with them and Dad needs to finish the book that he's behind in. I don't mean his behind is in his book, that would be a joke!

Sarah spends the morning with me. She's just the right person because she wants to be a stand-up comic. But she's funny even when she's sitting down. I think she could start a whole new tradition called sit-down comedy. Or maybe babysitter-down comedy, get it? I always laugh when she tells me stories. She says she loves that I am not only a good audience but great source material. That means she writes funny things that are partly about stuff I've done, like the other day. I heard Mom say to Dad, "This is a filthy book, Castle. Absolutely _filthy_ ," so the next morning when I saw it in their room I picked it up and went and dropped it into the washing machine so it would get clean. I didn't know books weren't supposed to go in there, even if they're filthy. It turns out they fall apart if they go in the water, which doesn't make any sense because books are made from trees, I mean paper is made from trees, and trees never mind getting wet. I said I was sorry and explained to Docky so he could tell Mom and Dad.

That's another part of our routine that I love. Every day just before supper we do FaceTime with Docky. He and I visit with each other and then if I have questions for Mom and Dad or they have questions about something I said he'll help us. Mom says, "You are such a mensch, Sidney," and he always chuckles and says thank you.

I like having Sarah to play with because my brother and sister are still kind of boring, I have to tell you. They're ten weeks old but they can't do very much yet. I guess I couldn't either when I was their age, which is a long time ago. Pretty soon I'm going to be two. Still, it's fun to talk to them when they're awake and not eating. They take separate baths because it is hard to do them together since they can't sit up and are very slippery. When Otis is having a bath I talk to Abby, and when it's her turn I talk to him. Sometimes they both talk to me at once which can be confusing. I can't always answer their questions, even though I'm their big brother and have been around the block a few times. Actually I've really been around it a million times, but Gram says, "I've been around the block a few times, kiddo, so I know what I'm talking about," so that's what I say, too, "a few times." Anyway, here's what Otis asked me last night.

 _"_ _Hey, Eliot, what's the difference between boys and girls?"_

 _"_ _I don't know exactly because the girls and boys I play with seem the same. But then girls grow up to be women like Mom and boys grow up to be men like Dad, and you can see they're different then."_

 _"_ _Do boys and girls have different parts? Because look at Abby over there naked. She's missing a part I have."_

 _"_ _I'll have to ask Docky, Otis. I don't know, because I'm a boy and I have that same part as you, not like Abby."_

I'm afraid that we hurt Abby's feelings because she said, _"See if I care. I don't want that stupid part of yours anyway."_ And then she wouldn't talk to me while Otis was having his bath, even though I told her we weren't teasing her or anything.

Today is Sunday and we had a big brunch party. It was people from the precinct and Docky and Lanie and Gram and Granddad and Alexis, which is a lot. Mom and Dad wanted everybody to meet the twins but they waited until Abby was strong enough. Granddad showed me a picture of Mom when she was a baby and she looked exactly like Abby, so I think Abby will get to be very strong like Mom. Did you know Mom can kick a door in with one foot? I've never seen her do it, but she can1

Ryan and Espo came a little bit later then everyone else. When they rang the bell we opened the door and they were standing there dressed up like elevator repairmen. They hollered "Delivery for Katherine Beckett!" and everybody laughed and clapped so loud that our cranky neighbor stuck his head out into the hall. They also had a present for Mom. It was a metal square about the size of a postcard and they said they would install it in the elevator at the precinct and they told her she had to read it out loud.

BIRTHPLACE OF OTIS & ABIGAIL BECKETT-CASTLE, MARCH 17, 2018

WHEN THEY GROW UP WE CAN ALL SAY WE KNEW THEM WHEN.

Then Mom said, "Over my dead body!" When everybody yelled "Boooooo!" she said, "But I will put it up in my office." The party was fun and we had so much food. Scrapple stayed under the coffee table a lot because that's where people kept dropping bits of cheese and things. He is one smart cookie! That's an expression, he's really a dog. We don't allow him to have cookies, but we call dog biscuits cookies so he thinks they are. The twins were good. The only thing that happened was that Otis spat up on Alexis who should have known not to bounce him so hard when he had just eaten. I liked seeing our friends from work and everyone said how big my vocabulary was which means I know a lot of words now. I think I learn a lot of new ones every day. I'm glad there's room in my head for all of them.

After everyone left Docky stayed because he was going to take Scrapple and me for a bicycle ride, but first we were sitting on the sofa talking. Mom and Dad sometimes call him ET, which is short for Eliot Translator.

"You know, Eliot, pretty soon you won't need me to be ET because you'll be such a good talker. You'll be able to tell your parents everything all by yourself and they'll understand everything. That's going to make me a little sad because I love talking to you every day on FaceTime."

"No!" And then I started crying louder than Otis and Abby at the same time.

 _"_ _You're not going to talk to me any more, Docky? ET? You're my best friend!"_

And Docky gave me the biggest hug ever and put me on his lap. "Oh. no, Eliot that's not what I meant. Of course I'll talk to you, every day. You're my BFF. Best friend forever, and that means even when you're all grown up, all right? "

"Okay."

"You feel better now?"

"Yah!"

I did. I felt so much better then. I was all cheered up. I went to see Mom and Dad before Docky and Scrapple and I went to the park. They were in the kitchen with the twins who were in their bouncy chairs.

 _"_ _Bye, you guys, I'm going for a bike ride. Docky was just talking to me about when I grow up and that made me think about you growing up, too. We're going to have a great time when you get bigger. We can play a lot of good tricks on Mom and Dad. There's three of us, four if you count Scrapple, but there's only two of them!"_

 _"_ _Have fun, Eliot."_

 _"_ _Have fun, Eliot."_

Abby and Otis said that at the same. They do that a lot, just like Mom and Dad do. I guess it's in the genes. Not jeans! The twins aren't big enough for jeans yet. But that's a good joke. I have to remember that one.

 **A/N** And that's the end of this adventure. When I began it in May with "Womb with a View," I had no idea where I was going—and look where I ended up! I never expected to write three stories rather than one and I certainly didn't expect this outpouring of support. I want to thank everyone who came along for the ride. Every single one of you. Although I'm marking this story complete, I do intend to drop on this family every now and then for some one shots. THANK YOU!


	22. Chapter 22

Just a note to say that the one-shots of what one reader calls the "Hi Series" will come under the title "Hi. It's Eliot Again." I'll post the first one either today or over the weekend. Thank you!


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